THOMASON SEES SESSION FOCUS ON CAMPAIGN, HEALTH AND WELFARE REFORM

JEFFERSON CITY - Rep. Larry Thomason believes that much of the effort of the Missouri General Assembly this year will be focused on three areas -- campaign reform, health care, and welfare reform.

If lawmakers can make major headway in those three areas, the Kennett Democrat believes this will be regarded as a highly successful session.

"Those are three priority issues that are pretty stout," said Thomason. "Take welfare reform, for example. Everybody knows we need it but the answers are not easy."

He added, "When you move into health reform more, you find that you can't make everybody a winner, and that makes it controversial. You have to be careful that whatever solution you come up with helps the individual, because if in trying to help the individual we hurt them, we have not succeeded. We have to be very careful how we structure that."

Thomason believes that campaign finance reform "is long overdue," and points out that during the five previous sessions he has served, reform bills have been passed three times in the wake of stiff Republican opposition.

"If we do nothing but deal with those three issues, we will have done a heck of a lot," he said.

Thomason, who is the Democratic Party whip in the House, also expects the legislature to focus on crime, a further revision in the workers comp laws, and issues related to education and agriculture.

He also anticipates an all out effort to close a loophole in Senate Bill 380, that allows schools that lease-purchase buildings to get additional state aid.

"It appears everybody, whether they supported 380 or not, agrees we have to fix that. I think we could have something on the governor's desk by the first of February," said Thomason.

He anticipates there will be some changes in last year's education reform bill, though probably nothing major.

Overall Thomason predicted, the 1994 session will be a productive one.

Said Thomason: "I think it will be a good session. We had a real decent session last year where we dealt with issues people said were important to them. I think we will be doing the same thing this year. Last session we dealt with issues most of Missourians were concerned about, and I think this session will also deal with issues a majority of citizens are concerned about."

In the area of health care reform, Thomason explained that last year's bill "expanded programs to address people falling between the gaps. But apparently, there is a whole lot of interest on the part of insurance companies and the medical profession to devise a Missouri plan that would extend medical coverage to people who cannot afford it, but who do not meet poverty guidelines."

The third term legislator is optimistic about the chance of getting a good bill passed. "When you have major players willing to work together toward creating a solution, then the chances of success are pretty good," Thomason said.

In addressing campaign reform, Thomason said he believes that politicians should be held to a truth in advertising policy. "Politicians should not be allowed to put out misleading ads anymore than a business should," he declared.

Thomason said he is concerned about late ads in campaigns that make false accusations and there is not enough time left to counter those allegations.

"It also ought to be easier for people to run for public office," added Thomason. "We don't want to see a system where only rich people can serve in office. If you go back to the early 1800s there was a great debate in this country where some thought only the rich should hold public office, reasoning that if they had the wherewith all to become rich, they could be a good manager of the country. But the other argument was that every person in the United States should be able to serve in elective office, that it should not be a rich person's game."

Thomason contends that some of the current proposals being discussed for campaign finance reform break down to that basic issue.

Said Thomason: "Some proposals out there now would limit what a person could take in to finance their campaign, except that they can spend their own money. When you start limiting what an average person can spend on a campaign, without trying to limit what a rich person can spend, I think we've got a problem."

Thomason, whose 163rd district includes most of Dunklin County and parts of New Madrid and Stoddard Counties, expects to handle several bills this year.

Among those are measures to strengthen the state's mandatory auto liability insurance law; consumer safeguards for some types of insurance including pre-need funeral coverage; improved efforts toward boll weevil eradication; and allowing commercial vehicle inspectors to carry firearms.

Thomason will continue to serve as chairman of the Legislative Research Committee, as vice chairman of the Transportation Committee, and as a member of the appropriations committee for natural and economic resources, the committee for agriculture, and the House Commerce Committee.