PLENTY OF ISSUES FACE SENATORS IN FINAL DAYS

JEFFERSON CITY -- During most of the 1994 session of the Missouri General Assembly legislative action in the Senate has been moving slowly.

In fact, the pace had been so slow last week that it prompted Senate Majority Leader J.B. "Jet" Banks, D-St. Louis, to urge members of the chamber, which prides itself on unlimited debate, to try and work out amendments before they hit the floor and limit discussion on any bill to 45 minutes.

"We are behind schedule. The House doesn't have any bills over there," said Banks after deciding to have the Senate work until near midnight Thursday and Friday to catch up.

"We have been moving slow in the Senate, and I'm not sure why," said Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter. "We will have to take a look at that after the session ... I have some ideas why."

Sen. Danny Staples, D-Eminence, is giving the session low marks and believes it will take a miracle finish to make 1994 a banner year for the legislative branch.

"This has been a very confusing four months. There doesn't seem to be a direction for some reason or the other, and on a scale of 1 to 10, in the 12 years I've been in the Senate I would rate this about a 2," said Staples. "We've been moving awfully slow in the Senate, possibly because we seem to be spending hours of debate on each bill.

"I really can't put my finger on it; maybe a week from now I can, but nobody right now seems to know what's wrong."

Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said he is not concerned that legislators are not passing a lot of bills. "It's not always bad when we don't pass a lot of things," said Kinder.

"I think the impression arises that we are not getting much done because of the fact the governor's agenda is stalled across the board, with a couple of exceptions," said Kinder.

"Health care is dead in its large design he introduced, and if he salvages anything it will bear only the smallest resemblance to the sweeping redesign he introduced. His attempt to pack the highway commission is dead. An attempt to form a new statewide advisory committee on transportation, which many of us saw as a prelude to issuing $500 million of bonds and getting the state permanently on the hook subsidizing St. Louis Metro Link, is dead. Collective bargaining for state employees, which effectively was the unionization of state government, is dead."

Kinder said two exceptions to Gov. Mel Carnahan's agenda that are still on track are a version of welfare reform and campaign finance reform, though Kinder said both issues will be inadequately addressed.

Howard, who along with Kinder served on a joint interim committee studying welfare reform, agreed that the final version is not enough to make the kind of changes needed.

A compromise bill passed the House Tuesday morning and awaits Senate action.

Kinder believes a major "showdown" of this final week will be on the crime bill, where some legislators have attempted to add a provision allowing people to carry concealed weapons. Carnahan has threatened to veto any concealed-weapons measure, but Kinder predicted that would be part of any crime bill -- leaving the governor with a dilemma.

Kinder said: "The crime bill will contain a concealed-weapons provision, which the governor has pledged to veto. He is furious that Democratic allies of his, Sen. Harold Caskey and Sen. Steve Danner, have turned against him on that one. I expect that to be one of the major showdowns of the week."

With crime as one of the major issues of concern to citizens, Carnahan may have a hard time putting his veto pen to a bill if concealed weapons is his only point of disagreement.

The three Southeast Missouri senators are also keeping close watch on Senate Bill 676, which is an effort to clean up some of the wording in the 1993 Senate Bill 380, which was a school finance and reform measure.

Many Southeast Missouri school districts fear they will lose money with the new plan, and complain that local control is reduced and too much of the new money is earmarked for teacher salaries.

"I don't like it. The bill ties the hands of school boards and I am not going to vote for it under any circumstances," said Howard.

Caskey, D-Butler, chairman of the education committee, has requested a conference on the bill with the House, which gives the three senators some hope that changes will be made to address some of the needs of their area. But, since it passed the House by a wide margin, changes in the conference version are likely to be minimal.

Staples said he can't wait for this session to end. He called it slow and grueling.

"This is shaping up to be one of the worst sessions ever," Staples said. "I just don't think we can salvage it."