A LEGISLATIVE SESSION IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE

When a session of the Missouri Legislature adjourns, there is a rush to attach a label to it and designate it as poor, mediocre, average or outstanding. When evaluating the work of the Second Session of the Eighty-sixth General Assembly which adjourned May 15, a sizable number of observers decided to give it a failing grade, labeling it poor to mediocre. That may be a bit unfair in light of a number of accomplishments recorded during its 42-month tenure.

The session did reverse a disturbing absence of highway construction progress by increasing Missouri's contributions to the new federal road building program, a feat which will not only repair our deteriorating highway system but which will enable Missouri to build many miles of improved roadways throughout the state. The $197 million tax increase, spread out over 6 years, will result in a billion-dollar influx of federal highway dollars, and it shouldn't take too many years for motorists and cities everywhere to see the benefits of this expanded program.

Then, too, the session took some steps to repair existing state programs that either aren't working well or have become too expensive. Programs such as workers compensation, for example, have grown so dramatically that costs are creating a serious threat to the financial stability of businesses in the state. Some tax credits that have provided an unintended bonanza to companies that were not originally included in the program have been closed. There were some other positive notes to come from the session, and many of them dealt with urban problems that needed attention, and the assembly turned in a better-than-usual record in terms of the environment.

But as its critics were quick to note, the Legislature failed in a number of instances, ranging from equitable distribution of state money to public schools to health care improvements to anti-drug legislation. Some long-range problems, too, were simply ignored or momentarily rejected, issues such as campaign reform and welfare reorganization.

It might be more accurate to observe that this year's session of the General Assembly, while mediocre in many respects and outstanding in fewer instances, could be more accurately assessed as disappointing. It was not that lawmakers lacked challenges. It was that they seemed to lack the energy to attack them and pursue answers.

In one sense of the word, this is more disturbing than if the Legislature had enacted a large number of questionable bills for which there was little public demand, measures such as the concealed weapons proposal and allowing Sunday liquor sales. This kind of special-interest legislation should never be permitted to dominate the legislative agenda, particularly when Missouri has schools that are going bankrupt and newborn children who are dying from inadequate medical attention. No one ever said legislatures always have a great sense of what is important and what is counterproductive.

House Speaker Bob Griffin inaugurated an attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff nearly a year ago when he named nine committees to study and recommend action in such vital areas as education, human services, health care, economic development, crime prevention and agriculture. Reading the completed reports of these commissions was not only reassuring but the basis for much optimism by many Missourians who have long despaired over the state's abysmal ranking in many of these areas. The speaker also asked the lawmakers who took part in the planning process to devise an agenda for the session just ended, and members complied with an outstanding itinerary for action in 1992.

Rereading the "Missourians First" report, following the May 15 adjournment, is like reading the countless crime reports that have been written following racial riots across the country. The reports are almost always accurate in assessing the causes, and more often than not they provide an invaluable aid in taking steps to prevent urban turmoil in the future. But once the reports are written, they are duly noted, filed and forgotten until the next disturbance occurs. That's what the report by the nine House commissions reminds us of: plenty of insight, an abundance of knowledge and little or no action.

Although there would be little reason for them to admit it, we suspect most of the 197 members of this year's General Assembly would acknowledge that much of the potential for progress that awaited their convening last January was simply not realized by the time of their adjournment in May. And most would be hard pressed to list where the time went and why so much of it was frittered away.

A legislative session is a terrible thing to waste.