DRUG TAX-CREDIT FEIASCO DEMANDS ANSWERS

State Auditor Claire McCaskill's audit of Missouri's prescription credit for senior citizens raises serious questions about the handling of the program. Someone should be held accountable.

When the tax credit was approved, the Office of Administration projected it would apply to 261,000 people at a cost of $40 million. Legislative researchers refined the estimate to just half that number at a cost of $20 million.

Neither was right. Instead, the Department of Revenue granted the tax credit to 458,000 people, including 105,000 who did not request it on their 1999 income-tax form, at a cost of $83 million. In so doing, the tax credit was given to anyone who met guidelines of being at least 65 years old and earning less than $24,900 annually.

People receiving full pharmaceutical reimbursement through Medicaid or Medicare weren't supposed to be eligible, but the department gave the tax credit to them too.

Because of other miscalculations and the revenue department's generosity, the state accumulated a $127 million shortfall that legislators voted to cover with proceeds from Missouri's tobacco settlement. Meanwhile, the state isn't giving the tax credit to people who don't apply for it on their 2000 state income-tax form while the Legislature comes up with a new program to help seniors with the high cost of prescription drugs.

McCaskill's audit blamed much of the problem on poor cost projections by the Office of Administration and the Committee of Legislative Research, both of which previously have acknowledged errors. But the auditor didn't go so far as to place blame on any single department or individual.

Missouri taxpayers deserve to know who is responsible for such gross mishandling of the prescription drug income-tax credit program. Who made the mistake and why? Why is no one being held accountable? Is anyone being reprimanded? Has anything been done to see that it doesn't happen again?

Gov. Bob Holden, who was state treasurer at the time, should have known the state was overspending on the program. Why didn't Holden, whose signature appeared on every check that was sent by state, bring it to someone's attention?

State Rep. David Levin, R-St. Louis, said employees who decided to give the tax credit to all seniors should be dealt with.

Indeed they should, and the attorney general's office should investigate the possibility of criminal wrongdoing by someone in state government for being so generous with taxpayers' money.