RETIRING FALLERT SAYS CREDIT SHOULD BE SHARED

JEFFERSON CITY -- Herb Fallert remembers well a statement he heard years ago: "Just about anything can be accomplished if you don't care who gets the credit."

After 12 years in the Missouri House of Representatives, Fallert is more convinced than ever that they are words of wisdom.

"You have to work together, because if you don't you won't get anything done, not as one man," said Fallert.

To be successful in the legislature, Fallert says that not only do you have to be able to work with colleagues and other state officials, but you need constituency support.

Since 1982, Fallert has represented Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties in the House. In looking back on his career, Fallert is quick to praise the people he has served.

"I was very proud to get to represent my people and proud that they put their confidence in me," said Fallert. "People in both counties are very progressive, and whatever I did was because the people were wanting to progress. I was merely a part of that progress."

Fallert announced this year that he was not seeking re-election. So, when the 1994 session of the General Assembly adjourns today at 6 p.m., his last session will be over. He will remain the representative from the 155th District until early next year, but the daily interaction with fellow lawmakers is over.

In announcing his retirement, Fallert said he had decided it was time to do something else and to spend more time with his wife Norma, three children and four grandchildren. With the end of the session at hand, Fallert has no second thoughts.

"I'm sure I'll miss it here, but there are some things I won't," he said.

Two weeks ago the House tourism committee he chaired for six years honored him with a dinner and "roast" and on Thursday morning he held a farewell reception at his office.

The soft-spoken Fallert has passed several bills, but doesn't believe quantity of legislation is the only way to judge success. "I feel it is just as important to kill a lot of things as it is to pass them. Part of being a good legislator is to protect your area," said Fallert.

"There are a lot of tough decisions we have to make here in voting, and sometimes constituents don't think we do the right thing. But I have tried to represent the people in the best way possible and do what I think is right," said Fallert.

One of his toughest votes was in 1992 when he voted to enact a 6-cent fuel tax without a vote of the people. Passing the gas tax quickly meant Missouri would get an infusion of federal highway funds, but the legislator's preference is to have people vote on tax increases.

"But now, after it is all said and done, it is one of the best things we did for the state of Missouri while I was here," said Fallert.

Votes for Senate Bill 380, a school finance-reform package last year, funding for a stadium in St. Louis, and a transit bill for St. Louis were also tough.

"Sometimes when we do things to benefit the big cities it helps the entire state; we have to look at that," said Fallert.

Many of the conflicts in the legislature are rural-urban splits, and overall Fallert believes lawmakers do a good job balancing those interests.

"We passed some real good rural economic-development bills here the last few years that could not have been passed without the support of urban legislators," he said.

Making some of Fallert's decisions on issues especially tough is the fact that his district is diversified: Ste. Genevieve County is heavily Democratic and Perry County is heavily Republican; Ste. Genevieve County is industrialized with union labor and Perry County is almost the opposite.

"That has made things tough sometimes, but I think when you work along the conservative line like I do we get along pretty well," Fallert said. "You just try to do the best you can for everyone as a whole."

Two bills he sponsored and passed in the area of tourism have drawn considerable attention.

In 1991, after failing the year before to get it through the legislature, Fallert won approval of a riverboat gambling bill. In November 1992 voters approved the concept, but since then the whole issue has been clouded with more legislation and legal challenges.

He admits to having some hard feelings.

"I really passed that whole thing as a tourism attraction for the state. But as time goes on, I am disappointed they did not follow through with what the people wanted and the tourism idea of the bill. It became a very complicated affair that could have been avoided."

Fallert's bill called for riverboat gambling to be regulated by the Missouri Tourism Commission, and they were gearing up to get boats on the water quickly. But just after his election in November 1992, Gov. Mel Canrahan and others pushed for a gaming commission and opposed having the tourism board involved.

"I begged them to get it started right away with the tourism commission, and said I had no objection to eventually having a gaming commission. But the powers to be wanted it their way and there wasn't much I could do about it," Fallert said.

During the 1993 session Fallert was successful passing HB-188, which provides a unique approach to funding tourism promotion. The bill identifies tourism-related industries in the state and allocates a certain percentage of sales tax growth in those industries to tourism promotion. That means if the promotional efforts are successful the tourism division will receive more funds.

"It gave tourism a reliable and constant form of funding for what is our number two industry in the state," said Fallert. "And, with this, it has the potential to be our number one industry soon."

The bill earned national recognition. Last year Fallert was among a group of Missouri officials who accepted the 1993 Award for Excellence from the Travel Industry Association of America.

Earlier this year, at the annual Governor's Conference on Tourism, Fallert was honored for his leadership on the bill with the group's Trailblazer Award.

Fallert was elected to the House in 1982, unseating 13-year Republican incumbent Vernon Bruckerhoff of St. Marys.