KELLY RESPONDS TO CARNAHAN PLAN TO CUT FOOD SALES TAX

Gov. Mel Carnahan isn't serious about cutting taxes, his Republican opponent charged Saturday.

Gubernatorial candidate and state auditor Margaret Kelly dismissed Carnahan's tax cut plan as an election-year ploy.

She promised to unveil her own plan next month to provide Missourians with a $500 million tax cut.

The plan is still being formulated, but Kelly said she is looking at cutting taxes across the board.

"Our taxpayers have been abused. Our businesses have been abused," she said.

Kelly spoke to reporters prior to a rally and fund-raiser in Cape Girardeau Saturday for 8th District congressional candidate Jo Ann Emerson.

More than 700 people attended the political picnic.

On Friday, Carnahan unveiled a plan to cut the general sales tax on food by $230 million so state revenues will remain under the constitutional limit.

But Kelly said voters shouldn't count on Carnahan.

"I think everybody knows you can't trust Carnahan on taxes," she said.

She said the governor broke his promise to Missourians when he raised taxes for education without seeking voter approval.

Kelly said she wasn't disappointed that the Missouri Farm Bureau didn't endorse either candidate for governor.

Kelly said the Farm Bureau normally endorses sitting governors.

It was a slap in the face to Carnahan that he didn't get the endorsement, she said.

Kelly said many Farm Bureau members will vote for her this November.

Kelly discounted the fact she trails Carnahan in the opinion polls.

She said Carnahan has less than 50 percent support of the voters, which is low for an incumbent.

"Things are going to start changing," she said of the gubernatorial race.

Kelly said the Republican National Convention and the Dole-Kemp ticket should boost Republican fortunes in Missouri this fall.

"The convention really energized people," said Kelly, who briefly spoke on the opening day of the convention in San Diego last week.

Emerson is running as an independent candidate in the general election in November. She hopes to succeed her late husband, Bill Emerson, who died in June of lung cancer.

The Cape Girardeau woman is an independent candidate only because she couldn't get on the ballot as a Republican.

"Obviously people understand and know that I am a Republican," she told reporters.

She said she expects the 8th District Republican committee to name her as the party's nominee for a special election to fill her late husband's unexpired term.

The special election will be held simultaneously with the general election on Nov. 5.