CRUCIAL CHOICES IN FINAL WEEK OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Monday morning begins the final, hectic week of the 1997 session of the General Assembly, which will adjourn at 6 p.m. Friday. As this was being written, action had been taken on all but three of the major appropriations bills that fund state government. Those three were still hanging fire as the constitutional budget deadline of 6 p.m. Saturday loomed.

A House-Senate showdown on the highly charged politics of abortion held up one of those bills and threatened last-minute budget brinkmanship. In some fashion or another, this showdown will likely have been resolved by this morning.

At stake are the fates of nearly all the major bills, including a huge managed-care reform bill, the proposed 3-cent tax cut on food sales, a welfare-reform bill and many more. Gov. Mel Carnahan and his majority Democrats face a major test in proving to Missourians that they can deliver the tax cuts they have promised for two consecutive years. The House earlier passed the simple cut in the sales tax on food, but the Senate added a number of other tax measures as well -- including a tax deduction for parents who send their children to private schools in grades nine to 12 and the equalization of the tax treatment of private and public pensions.

The House also should do whatever is necessary to act on Senate Bill 275, the bill to ban partial-birth abortions. The bill passed the Senate overwhelmingly and enjoys lopsided support in the House.