LEGISLATIVE AGENDA INCLUDES CRIME, ETHICS, HEALTH ISSUES

JEFFERSON CITY -- As members of the General Assembly return for the start of the 1996 legislative session, they already have more than 400 bills on an agenda that is expanding daily.

By the time they end this year's second session of the 88th General Assembly May 17, the state's 197 lawmakers will have a stack of proposed laws numbering as many as 1,300 bills. They will enact probably no more than 15 percent.

As with the start of any 4 1/2-month session, members aren't hesitant to begin filing suggested remedies to a vast number of unresolved issues: crime, ethics violations, inadequate health care and the effects of a growing gambling industry.

Each of those four issues has attracted the largest number of pre-filed bills, now numbering 190 in the House of Representatives and 204 in the Senate. Crime and its prevention have attracted the largest number of suggested remedies, and these range from attempts to reduce violence in school classrooms to the introduction of chain gangs for state correctional prisoners.

In areas dealing with health and medical services, lawmakers have offered a variety of new programs that range from programs to expand health maintenance organizations to mandated minimum hospital stays for mothers and their newborn babies. The latter measures seek to correct what some have charged is insurance-industry pressure on hospitals to discharge mothers and their babies too quickly after birthing.

Proposals also range from a prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the Capitol to a general outlawing of lobbyists' gifts to much stricter regulations and reporting requirements for lobbyists. A couple of measures would reinforce efforts currently in existence to corral excessive gift-taking and bolster staffing of the Missouri Ethics Commission.

As might be expected, the state's relatively new riverboat gambling industry has created problems that some lawmakers believe can be remedied by legislation. There is a bill to require sufficient passage of time between local-option elections on gambling casinos, while one would outlaw ATMs on riverboats. Another calls for "altering" admission charges, which is another way of ending this charge, while one bill wants to end the presence of Missouri Highway Patrol officers at the casinos. Still another would increase the salaries of prosecuting attorneys in counties where casinos are situated. Additional efforts to deal with compulsive gambling victims are also the subject of some pre-filed bills.

Some legislation has achieved almost permanent status, appearing on bill lists year after year, a few for as long as a decade. Anti-abortion measures, concealed weapons and collective bargaining rights for public employees have been around longer than many of the General Assembly's members. Others call for including employees of the Department of Revenue in the state merit system, prohibiting the sale of fuel below the retailer's purchase cost and regulating restrooms in public areas. Most have received little or no attention from past sessions although the perennial sponsor of the last idea, Sen. Irene Treppler, gained some progress last year.

Some bills mirror recent events, such as Senate president Jim Mathewson's bill designed to clarify language embodied in the Hancock Amendment on tax refunds. A dispute between Gov. Mel Carnahan and Auditor Margaret Kelly has produced partisan fireworks in recent days, and the Sedalia Democrat is proposing the argument be settled through legislation.

Other measures expected to attract media attention during the session include Sen. Steve Ehlmann's measure setting revised academic standards for Missouri's elementary and secondary school students and the efforts of several lawmakers to repeal or reduce the effects of term limits on state officials.