A LOT OF BAD BILLS THANKFULLY DIDN'T PASS MUSTER

Assessments of the recently ended session of the Missouri Legislature have repeatedly called attention to the fact that so few bills were passed this year. For the most part, those reviews conclude that the session was unproductive, contentious and politically polarized.

Yes. Yes. And yes.

But that doesn't mean it was a bad session. It simply means the way some of the bills, particularly those dealing with critical issues, were written wasn't acceptable to enough legislators.

Good. Good. And good.

It's just too bad that some other poorly conceived bills didn't suffer the same fate -- bills like the $2.25 billion of highway funding that has no plan and no provisions for paying back the borrowed billions.

Another bill involving billions of dollars was the one dealing with the estimated $6.7 billion tobacco settlement over the next 25 years. There was a rush to grab at least some of the money for pet projects and for programs completely unrelated to smoking issues.

One version of the tobacco bill would have asked voters to approve spending 60 percent of the tobacco windfall for health care, 20 percent for anti-smoking efforts and 20 percent for a state emergency fund. Not that the Legislature really cares about how voters want to spend the money. The reason for proposing a statewide vote was to make sure the tobacco money didn't fall into the category of state income, which would have no doubt triggered still more tax refunds under Missouri's Hancock Amendment.

There were several problems with this scheme. In the first place, the spending options were based on fuzzy priorities at best. In the second place, some thought still needs to be given to returning the money -- all of it -- to taxpayers, at least what's left over after Attorney General Jay Nixon's hand-picked lawyers collect their fees.

Missouri's claim to any portion of the nationwide tobacco settlement rests on the notion that the state somehow was forced to spend a lot of money because so many of its residents were addicted to tobacco products. Everyone seems to forget that the state wasn't spending its own money. States don't have money of their own. If Missouri spent a dime on expenses created by the use of tobacco, it was spending taxpayers' money.

So why not give the money back to the taxpayers?

Another hapless bill was the effort to ratify the so-called Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, something Missouri failed to do years ago when it would have meant something. There is no option now for ERA ratification. Such an action would not only have been without merit, it would have been entirely meaningless. Yet legislators wasted hours on the topic while the bill languished.

Now that term limits for individuals elected to state office are finally kicking in, it suddenly became important to try to undo the limits or at least extend them so some current legislators wouldn't be forced to seek other employment. This was another bad idea that fortunately wound up on the scrap heap, but not before considerable time and effort were expended in the process.

An attempt to turn youngsters into criminals also failed, again for good reason. This bill would have made it a crime for anyone under 18 years of age to smoke. Another provision would have penalized retailers who sold cigarettes to minors. Missouri's youths have enough problems without getting collared by police after adults sell them cigarettes and after parents relinquish their authority to control what their children do in public.

There's a long list of other bills -- bad bills -- that didn't make it. If those who weigh the merits of a legislative session on the number of bills passed without regard for the quality of those bills, the cause of state government is poorly served.

For the most part, Missourians should be reacting to the low passed-bill count with two useful words: Thank goodness.