A LOT OF REVENUE

Missouri state government is awash in revenue to an extent unprecedented in recent history. With Gov. Mel Carnahan's huge tax increases, a reasonably healthy state economy that even those higher taxes couldn't kill plus riverboat gambling revenue the state didn't have three years ago, money is literally gushing into Department of Revenue's coffers. One indicator of the growth is that a state budget that a little over a decade ago was in the $4 billion range today tops out at about $13.7 billion.

That is too much growth for most of us. It is also one reason why this space has been frequently devoted to calls for tax cuts on working Missourians. Another, however, is enshrined in the Missouri Constitution: the tax-limitation amendment, also known as the Hancock Amendment, approved by voters in 1980. The Hancock Amendment specifies that if growth in state revenue outstrips growth in personal income, government has exceeded a lid, and refunds are owing to taxpayers. This fact was behind Carnahan's announcement last year that for the first time ever, Hancock refunds will be paid.

The governor, who did his taxing in 1993, his first year in office, wants to be known as a tax-cutter in this, the year of his re-election campaign. So in January he proposed a $150 million tax cut through a quarter-cent reduction in the sales tax. Meanwhile, House Republicans proposed instead to eliminate the state sales tax on food. With tax-cut proposals floating in an election year, The Legislature was off to the races.

A House committee brushed aside the GOP proposal and approved a 1.75 cent reduction in the sales tax on food, which the governor said he could live with. The measure hasn't been taken up for House floor consideration, however, because of the chairman's fear that Republicans will offer their proposal and other tax cuts as hard-to-resist amendments.

Meanwhile, a Senate committee has been the scene of similar maneuvers. A tax-cut bill in that chamber got loaded up with a lengthy list of tax deductions for private pensioners, for families with dependents and for parents who send their children to private high schools. This last is particularly noxious to the governor, who is opposed to any help for parents with children in private schools. Still, the senior Democratic senator, John Schneider of St. Louis, has said he will kill the governor's tax bill if this isn't included.

Meanwhile, overtaxed Missourians are watching to see whether a Democratic governor and a General Assembly controlled now for so long by that party can deliver the tax relief to which we're all entitled.