GROUP DECRIES SCARE TACTICS IN AMENDMENT 7 CAMPAIGN

As rain sliced through the early afternoon air Monday, Jim McLellan did his best to shred what he contends are false claims made by opponents of Amendment 7, otherwise known as Hancock II.

McLellan, a Sikeston attorney, joined Julie Kridelbaugh just outside the Cape Girardeau Common Please Courthouse on a stormy Halloween Day to separate "tricks from the real treats."

Both McLellan and Kridelbaugh are leaders of a grass-roots organization called Southeast Missouri Citizens Against Government Waste.

If Hancock II passes, both McLellan and Kridelbaugh said more than $300 million already designated for state spending would need voter approval.

"We simply want the state government to operate the way a family does under a budget," McLellan said, adding that if spending is more than income, which for the state is 5.64 percent, citizens must approve the spending.

"If the hard-working citizens must live within a budget based on their personal income, we feel the state should do the same thing," McLellan said. "We're not saying spending will never exceed the personal income level. It just has to be approved by the voters."

McLellan said opponents of Hancock II base most of their attacks on an analysis made by James Moody, a "longtime state bureaucrat and highly paid lobbyist."

While people may think Hancock II becomes effective in 30 days, McLellan said that wasn't true. It won't become effective until the 1996 fiscal year, he said.

Another "myth" is that Hancock II would trigger $1 to $5 billion in cuts in state services. A court of has found these claims "unwarranted" and "unfair," he said.

Another false claim is that Hancock II limits the revenue from the lottery, McLellan said, adding:

"Lottery money is exempt from Missouri's Constitution, Article III. So is conservation tax money that is to be spent on hunting, fishing, recreation and conservation."

Furthermore, McLellan said, people are being led to believe prisons won't be built and prisoners will go free if Hancock II passes.

"Hancock II does not deny money for prisons, nor does it impair bonds," he said.

Another "trick" McLellan wanted to expose was the claim that 9,000 teachers would lose their jobs.

"There will be no cuts in teacher jobs," McLellan said. "Missouri's constitution mandates that education funding comes immediately after repayment of bonds, which is first."

McLellan said the CATO Institute's Oct. 17 report on Hancock II shows Moody is wrong by 800 percent in his alarmist predictions of spending cuts.

CATO projects that, at most, a $128 million cut will be made.

Both McLellan and Kridelbaugh claim scare tactics from politicians and state administrators have been used to get citizens to vote out of fear.

McLellan said he is representing a woman who works for the state.

"She was told on three separate occasions to make copies of information that would be used to try and defeat Hancock II," McLellan said. "On the third occasion she refused and was reprimanded by her boss. If she continues to get reprimanded, there will be litigation over the matter."

He added that "it's a sad day when the government tries to get citizens to vote a certain way out of fear of losing their jobs or just false information."