TAX CUTS TOP LAWMAKERS' LIST FOR '98 SESSION

Tax cuts won't be the only issue before the Missouri Legislature in 1998.

Issues ranging from electric utility deregulation to health care for children will be on the legislative table, Southeast Missouri lawmakers say.

The General Assembly also is expected to revisit a number of controversial issues from the 1997 session.

State Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, plans to renew efforts to outlaw partial-birth abortions.

Gov. Mel Carnahan, who supports abortion rights, vetoed similar legislation of Kinder's this year. The Legislature failed to override the veto.

Kinder said this year that the legislative effort will begin in the House.

That way, if the bill passes the Legislature and is vetoed by the governor, the effort to override the veto would begin in the House.

Kinder said he expects House members would vote for an override next September, which would put more pressure on senators to follow suit with the November 1998 election only two months away.

But Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, believes Kinder's effort to ban partial-birth abortions is a futile move because it wouldn't pass muster with the federal courts.

"It is not going to become law no matter what happens," he said.

Kinder plans to reintroduce a bill to allow Missourians to carry concealed weapons.

Last session, Kinder opposed efforts to put the issue before the voters. But the Republican lawmaker said he might include a referendum provision in the new bill.

Such a provision would avoid an almost certain veto by the governor and put the issue in the hands of the voters, Kinder said.

Thomason said the Legislature will have to address efforts to deregulate the electric utility industry at the retail level.

"It is going to be a big issue," Thomason said.

"If we are not very careful in what we do, everybody's electric rates are going up," the veteran lawmaker said.

Thomason said large industries that are heavy users of electricity are pushing deregulation.

"If they save money, somebody else has to pay more, and that somebody else is residential and small-business consumers," he said.

Thomason believes rural areas would lose out in a deregulated market.

He points to Kennett, for example. The community is served by a municipal power company.

"The city of Kennett has the lowest utility rates in the state of Missouri," Thomason said.

Kennett, he said, would have nothing to gain from deregulation.

Rep. Patrick Naeger, R-Perryville, predicts a major battle in the Legislature over child-care legislation favored by Carnahan.

As in the 1997, the governor is pushing for legislation to provide health insurance for low-income children.

But Naeger said the 1998 version is worse.

It would allow Medicaid to be extended to children in families whose incomes are well above the poverty line, he said.

Under the measure, a family of four could make up to $39,000 a year and still quality for Medicaid, he said.

"This creates another entitlement," he said.

Southeast Missouri lawmakers also expect the Legislature to look at ways to stem methamphetamine production and trafficking.

Thomason and Reps. Joe Heckemeyer, D-Sikeston, and Marilyn Williams, D-Dudley, plan to introduce legislation that would reclassify cold pills that are used as an ingredient in the production of methamphetamine.

The measure is still being drafted, but it could require consumers to show identification to purchase various medications that could be used to make the illegal drug, Thomason said.

Naeger said the state needs tougher sentencing laws to help combat the drug problem.

"We are too soft," he said. "We are not sending them to prison."

Naeger said there should be a mandatory jail sentence for repeat drug offenders.