A SESSION OF BAD BILLS THAT DIED

We've been at it this year in Jefferson City since Wednesday, January 5. The pace has been steadily accelerating over the last few weeks. We start again Monday morning at 9 a.m., and after an action-packed week, legislative business will come to a halt this Friday, May 13 at 6 p.m. Here's a quick snapshot of how things look as we head into the final, furious week of the second session of Missouri's 87th General Assembly:

I believe this session will be remembered most of all for the multiplicity of bad bills that died. Much of this category includes items on Gov. Mel Carnahan's agenda. Whether from that source or any other, I say, "Rest in Peace" and "Good Riddance."

Health Reform

HB 1622, Gov. Carnahan's sweeping plan to remake Missouri's health care delivery system, is deader than a doornail, slam-dunked by a 30-vote margin in a Democratic House, despite the fervent backing of the Speaker, arguably the most powerful man in either house. It is possible (but doubtful) that a much less ambitious health insurance reform bill (SB 722), which passed the Senate, could become law.

Best guess: No final action on either.

Packing the Highway Commission

This one's as dead as 1622. A massive proposed transfer of power from outstate to urban areas, in the words of Sen. Norman Merrell, D.-Monticello it would have been "a blow from which we (outstate) would never recover." In grand design, this Carnahan proposal was part of a broadranging scheme: 1) to get all Missouri taxpayers permanently on the hook paying for urban mass transit; and 2) to issue $500 million in bonds for highways, authority neither sought nor desired by our current, pay-as-you-go commission. Level heads prevailed.

Collective Bargaining for State Employees

The effective unionization of state government, this one would have meant exploding costs, higher taxes, bankrupted localities and the permanent erosion of self-government. Big Labor's bosses thought they saw the best opportunity in years to ram this one down our throats. It died in the Senate, too, despite Gov. Carnahan's stated support.

Welfare Reform

Look for Gov. Carnahan and legislative leaders, with fulsome self-congratulation, to pass something they will call welfare reform. In reality, all the good meausres are missing, and the version they will hail is unworthy of the name. They are tinkering at the margins within the same failed system, when what we need is wholesale, root-and-branch replacement of the failed Liberal Welfare State. Two, three, five years from now, under this bill, we will have a larger, costlier mess, a more divided society and a more frustrated taxpaying public.

Campaign Finance Reform

Something under this rubric will pass and be hailed as major progress. I believe it to be unconstitutional for a host of reasons, and an incumbent-protection device to boot. A bummer.

Crime Bill

A major crime bill will pass both houses. Look for a solid majority of senators to follow the House vote (110-40) for the right to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, extending to Missourians a right enjoyed by citizens of 35 other states.

Here is Gov. Carnahan's exquisite dilemma: Pledged to veto any concealed weapon bill that reaches his desk, he will likely find it in the crime bill that is his legislative centerpiece, courtesy of two pro-gun senators who are closest to him, Democrats Harold Caskey and Steve Danner. Internecine, intra-party warfare, anyone?

Riverboat gambling to public vote

Will not pass. Nor will video lottery machines in every saloon, another staple of House Speaker Griffin's.

Remember one thing, if all this looks sloppy, as indeed it is. Sir Winston Churchill said it: Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.