Senate hearing weighs conservation tax future

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ONE-EIGHTH CENT SALES TAX

By Marc Powers ~ Southeast Missourian

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Those speaking at a Senate hearing Wednesday on whether to ask Missouri voters to reconsider the state's earmarked sales tax for conservation split into two diametrically opposed camps.

One group says the Missouri Department of Conservation is a renegade agency that rides roughshod over the public and spends wastefully. The other side credits the department with developing a conservation program that is the envy of other states.

State Sen. John Cauthorn, R-Mexico, said that with the constitutional independence to spend revenue -- garnered from a perpetual, dedicated one-eighth cent sales tax -- without legislative oversight, the department and its governing commission have become models of arrogance. Cauthorn is proposing a constitutional amendment that, if ratified by voters in 2006, would require a statewide vote to re-authorize the tax every 10 years, beginning in 2008.

"To truly be accountable to the people, no tax should be permanent," Cauthorn said.

Missouri voters added the tax to the state constitution in 1976. The state today boasts one of the best-funded conservation departments in the nation.

During a two-hour committee hearing, Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones urged senators to leave well enough alone and not put the tax at risk.

"Missouri's citizen-created conservation department is something to feel good about and something to value," Jones said. "They work hard to fulfill their mandate, while also being a good neighbor with counties and cities."

Jones touted Cape Girardeau County's long-standing relationship with the department, which has its regional headquarters in the county park. The department will open a $6.7 million conservation campus in the park in May that will provide educational services to residents and school groups from throughout Southeast Missouri.

Too well funded

Russell Wood of Mountain Grove said the department is too well-funded. Wood said the tax was intended to improve management of Missouri's fish and wildlife resources but, with plenty of money to go around, the department started purchasing large amounts of property.

"Our money could be better spent on local law enforcement, county government and schools," Wood said. "We don't need more state-owned land."

Leslie Holloway, a lobbyist for the Missouri Farm Bureau, questioned the department's attempts to impose land-use regulations on private property owners. Farm Bureau supports Cauthorn's amendment.

"Land owners seem to have to spend an inordinate amount of time defending themselves against MDC policies," Holloway said.

The dedicated sales tax provides nearly two-thirds of the department's $133.9 million budget for the current fiscal year. The remainder comes from hunting and fishing permits plus federal funds.

State Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, was concerned how the state, which is already struggling to fund basic services, would find enough money in its general fund to pay for the department if the tax weren't reauthorized.

"This is pretty much the death penalty for the department if it's voted down," Graham said.

Cauthorn said the situation was no different than a separate one-eighth cent sales tax for state parks and soil and water conservation that voters must -- and have -- renewed once a decade.

Martin MacDonald, the public relations director for Bass Pro Shops, said the Springfield, Mo.-based retailer of outdoors equipment would work to defeat Cauthorn's proposal should it make it on the ballot.

"We are deeply disturbed this resolution is even on the table," MacDonald said.

The measure is SJR 3.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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