AUTO AUCTIONS WIN STATE BATTLE

Local auto auction owner Stan Lowery and two of his fellow auction owners won a major victory last month. Along with the others, Lowery -- who owns Cape Girardeau Auto Auction -- was awarded a temporary injunction restraining the Missouri Motor Vehicle Commission from further action against such auctions. Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder ruled against the commission, which had warned the auctions last July that the practice of dealers' selling uninspected vehicles through public auto auctions was unlawful.

Instead, at least through the first round, it is the commission's action and interpretations that would appear legally suspect. Greg Mitchell, the former commission director, had argued that Missouri law allows individuals to sell uninspected cars through the auctions, but not dealers. Mitchell left the commission under something of a cloud, having angered influential lawmakers of both parties and in both houses with his pursuit of this policy. House Majority Floor Leader Gracia Backer, D-New Bloomfield, saw to it that funding for the commission was yanked and put back under the Department of Revenue, which used to have the responsibility. Senate appropriators zeroed out the commission's funding entirely, leaving these differences to be resolved in the upcoming House-Senate conference committee action.

State Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, says the commission's action is overreaching, an example of "getting involved in something government shouldn't be involved in." Schwab is correct. Here's hoping the auction owner's first-round victories will later be made permanent.