MAC: CAPE COUNTY OFFICIALS AT STATE MEETING

Five Cape Girardeau County officials were among several hundred county officials attending the 21st annual conference of the Missouri Association of Counties in Columbia.

The event began Sunday afternoon and concluded Tuesday. The conference provided seminars and training for county officials and offered an opportunity to outline legislative priorities for 1993 and to elect new MAC officers.

Attending from Cape Girardeau County were County Clerk Rodney Miller and Auditor H. Weldon Macke, who are both past presidents of the organization; Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep and Associate Commissioners E.C. Younghouse and Leonard Sander.

"Standing Strong Against Challenge" was the theme of this year's conference. Dan Devine, athletic director at the University of Missouri, delivered the opening address Monday morning.

Monday's sessions were devoted to intergovernmental issues. Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, chairman of the House Budget Committee, explained the state reimbursement program for juvenile salaries and per-diem expenses for prisoners.

Donna White, director of the Missouri Department of Labor, and Bruce Cornett, director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, reviewed ways workers' compensation might be changed in the state. Increased costs of workers' comp have been a problem not only for small businesses in the state but also for local governments.

State Rep. Don Koller, D-Summersville, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Missouri Highway and Transportation Commissioner James W. Gamble discussed transportation needs that have not been funded through the 6-cent gas-tax increase.

Hal Morton, director of the Department of Natural Resources' solid-waste management program, explained options for disposing of solid waste and a trend away from landfills and toward recycling.

Other seminars focused on the open meetings law, development of personnel plans and job descriptions for employees, and ways to limit governmental liability.

At a Monday night banquet several members of the Missouri General Assembly were honored for legislation they sponsored this year.

Koller and Sen. Norman Merrell, D-Monticello, were honored for sponsoring a resolution that led to passage this summer of Constitutional Amendment 8, which increased the counties' shares of proceeds from the new 6-cent gas tax from 10 percent to 15 percent.

Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, and Rep. Gail Chatfield, D-St. Louis County, were honored for their legislation creating a Missouri consolidated health care plan. By 1994, the plan will set up one statewide program to which any political subdivision may belong.

A variety of issues were to be discussed Tuesday when conference participants viewed legislative priorities for 1993.

On the agenda were: full funding for state-mandated programs; workers' comp reform; funding for mass transit; and reimbursement for all medical costs counties incur while keeping state prisoners.