FAIRNESS IS ESSENTIAL IN GOVERNMENT

Most Missourians, like most Americans, are essentially understanding and fair-minded, a trait that can occasionally be traced to indifference and at other times to studied tolerance and acceptance. As a matter of fact, given the peccadilloes performed on a regular basis in city halls, state capitals and Washington, the tolerance of average citizens is something of a miracle. Unlike virtually every other nation around the world, there have been only brief moments in America when there has been anything close to open rebellion against the forces of government, and many of these periods occurred in the formative years of the nation and not in recent times.

Missourians, like Americans, don't relish paying taxes, and yet most of us take a quiet pride in making our contribution to society while loudly voicing our displeasure at the high cost of government. No, we don't mind taxes as much as we protest, even if it does pinch our pocketbooks, because we also have a pride in our state and nation that mitigates, sometimes if only slightly, the pain of taxation. Furthermore, despite protests to the contrary, most of us take our other responsibilities of citizenship seriously and carry them out with barely a murmur. We cast our ballots, obey the speed laws, buy our auto licenses and refrain from burning leaves not because we always agree with these rules and laws but because it is expected of us as law-abiding citizens.

What, then, is the source of so much citizen dissatisfaction in recent years? Why has unquestioned acceptance of governmental fiat gradually disappeared? Why the malaise, the suspicion, the hostility at every layer of government?

We won't argue that we have the complete answer to the puzzle, but we believe some of it can be traced to the growing practice within city halls, state capitals and Washington to grant special privileges and dispensations to a favored few. It will be remembered that this long-time predilection of granting special favors to the chosen minority was the root cause of the American colonists' revulsion toward King George III. Certain taxes and fees levied by the British Crown were collected not from everyone in the New World, only those who had not received a royal exemption. Despite folklore to the contrary, our ancestors were not as angry over the Crown's taxes, which were collected throughout the empire, but against the exemptions granted to those with enough influence to receive them from the king. Most colonists believed the taxes should be paid by everyone, a belief that lead to the American Revolution and the inception of Jacksonian democracy.

We have never understood why so many engaged in public service give lip-service to, but fail to comprehend, this citizen affection for equality under the law. We suspect some of this misunderstanding comes from the perception of those in power that citizens judge them on less-than-democratic principles and that their favor with the electorate can best be curried by catering to the demands of as many persons as possible. When public issues are viewed not on their overall effect but on the amount of citizen discontent they generate, there are bound to be compromises.

In the short time this year's General Assembly has been in session, we have seen numerous public issues that were compromised in an effort to gain acceptance. For example, funding for a valuable and badly needed health program was amended when lobbyists for alcoholic beverage companies sought and received exemption for their products. The original plan called for higher levies on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, two commodities that certainly contribute to the poor health of thousands of Missourians. But because the beer and liquor lobbyists voiced their usual subtle hints to scuttle the program, bill sponsors eliminated these products from the new-tax list.

For example, as legislators struggle to write rules and regulations for the state's newest "growth industry," riverboat gambling, special dispensations are relentlessly pursued by those who will gain from them. The legislation approved by voters last year called for a special exemption for the property of the largest contributor to the referendum. It seems the owner had property that didn't exactly qualify as a riverboat since it lacked an engine and navigational equipment. So the law was written to exempt this high roller from the rules laid down for all the rest. Now the exemption has been expanded to include a larger area along the same river.

For example, Missouri's most important problem today, the underwriting of an equitable distribution of state funds to local school districts, has reached the crisis point because a circuit judge finally ruled that Missouri was not treating all school children fairly and that special dispensations in the current formula favored some districts at the expense of the rest. Yet this situation, well known to anyone who can read, has been permitted to exist for years. Missourians have a right to be angry with those who, year after year, stood by as these inequities continued and were even expanded upon.

For example, the state is being asked to provide new funds for a bogus public transportation program that is clearly an attempt to secure tax money for an already bankrupt Metro Link system in St. Louis. Sponsors argue that their program would give much needed public transportation assistance in cities that have no need for such projects simply to mask their own desire to tap into the state's revenue system. The idea that an entire state should pay a higher tax on retail purchases to supply operating funds for a civic boondoggle in St. Louis is a first cousin to King George's tax on tea. So is the concept of providing tax money from throughout the state to build a football stadium in the same city.

These are the inequities and the unfairness of government that stir the anger of citizens. Most Missourians are not oblivious to obvious needs and reforms. Most Missourians want to see the poor cared for, the mentally ill treated and our children properly educated. Most are even willing to pay for reasonable remodeling of Capitol offices, as long as the money is not excessive and the habit isn't annually followed.

But Missourians, like the early colonists, insist on equity, fairness and equal treatment under the law. We hope our state leaders recognize this sooner than King George did.