If voters want to extend a sales tax for state parks, and soil and water conservation, they will first have to get it on the ballot.
State lawmakers left it up to citizens to get the issue on the November ballot.
But lawmakers did deal with two other tax issues.
The legislature passed and Gov. Mel Carnahan signed a use-tax bill that allows local governments to seek voter approval in August to reimpose taxes on out-of-state purchases.
The law was prompted by the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling in March that threw out the state's use tax. The court said the tax wasn't being applied fairly.
Lawmakers also approved a measure that allows school districts to keep the local railroad and utility property tax revenue rather than have it go to the foundation formula for funding schools statewide.
State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said it is a change from Senate Bill 380, the education tax measure, which took such revenue away from individual school districts.
Kinder said the change is good news for some districts. The Cape Girardeau school district, for example, will get back $700,000, he said.
An urban-rural split in the legislature kept lawmakers from putting a measure on the ballot to extend a 0.1 cent sales tax for state parks and soil and water conservation.
Kinder said some St. Louis-area lawmakers wanted to siphon off some of the tax money to rebuild Forest Park.
Others wanted to use some of the money for stormwater drainage projects.
Urban lawmakers say most of the sales tax money is generated in their areas, but spent in rural areas.
Rural lawmakers counter that many city residents visit the state parks.
Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, said he opposes using the state sales tax for city parks. "Most cities I know have a local city tax for parks."
Missouri annually collects about $56 million from the tax. The money is split equally between state parks and the soil and water conservation program.
Both are funded almost entirely from the sales tax.
The Conservation Federation of Missouri and the Missouri Farm Bureau have mounted an initiative petition drive to get a proposal on the November ballot to extend the tax for another 10 years.
The groups need 180,000 signatures of registered voters to get the issue on the ballot. The petitions must be submitted to the state by July 5.
The sales tax was enacted in 1984.
Lawmakers put the issue on the ballot, and voters narrowly approved the tax.
Four years later, efforts to extend the tax died in the legislature. An initiative petition effort put the issue on the ballot, and voters overwhelming approved a 10-year extension that ends in 1998.
Backers of the tax hope history will repeat itself this fall.
Charlie Davidson is assistant director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri, the state's largest conservation group.
Davidson is one of the leaders in the campaign to extend the sales tax.
Prior to the enactment of the sales tax, Missouri was the second worst state in terms of soil erosion, and its state parks had become rundown.
"They were holding their mowers together with baling wire," said Davidson.
Since the tax was imposed, a cost-sharing program with farmers for erosion control has saved hundreds of thousands of tons of topsoil, said Denny Banister, Farm Bureau spokesman.
The state parks have also benefited. "Our state parks are real gems and they were going downhill rapidly before this program came about," he said.
"The problem with the program is not that it doesn't work. The problem is that it works all too well," he said.
As a result, St. Louis-area lawmakers want to tap into the funding for projects in their area, Banister said.
Tourism and agriculture are the biggest industries in the state. "It is in the entire state's economic best interest to keep it going. I think the majority of the legislators felt that way," Banister said.
Kinder said the erosion control program is vital to farmers. "This is an example of something government did that really worked."
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