AMENDMENT 4 IS BEST OFFER

Missourians will vote Tuesday on Amendment 4, a tax-limitation measure backed by Gov. Mel Carnahan as well as conservative groups such as the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation. The amendment would limit the legislature's ability to increase taxes without a public vote to one percent of state revenue or $50 million, whichever is smaller.

While far from perfect, the amendment would, had it been in place, have greatly complicated schemes such as the huge Carnahan tax increases contained in Senate Bill 380, passed in 1993. Such measures could still pass, but not without a public vote. In last year's debate on the proposed amendment, a host of Republican amendments that would have toughened protection for taxpayers was defeated on mostly party-line votes in the Democrat-controlled legislature. This is regrettable, but not reason enough to repudiate the measure. Amendment 4, which doesn't replace the Hancock Amendment voters approved in 1980, is the best we will get in the way of tax limitation from the crowd currently in power. Voters should approve it and hope that more stringent taxpayer protection can be enacted at a future date by a more taxpayer-friendly General Assembly.