GOP OFFERS TAX CUT AS A HIGH-PRIORITY ISSUE

Republicans last sat in the majority in the Missouri House of Representatives in 1954. In the Senate, you must go back 52 years -- to 1946 -- to find a GOP majority. Missouri is one of only six states in America that have Democratic majorities in both houses of the Legislature and a Democratic governor.

Hopes run high among House and Senate Republicans that this November's elections could end this decades-long drought. Last week at the annual veto session, House and Senate Republicans pledged themselves to an across-the-board $300 million tax cut in the state income tax. They propose to accomplish this by slashing the state income tax 0.05 percent. Democrats responded with criticism of the GOP plan as election-year grandstanding.

Recent national reports have shown that Missouri has the fastest growing state budget in the nation. Under six budget years of Mel Carnahan's administration, Missouri has moved from 47th to 16th in overall state and local tax burden. These years have seen the state budget growing by a billion dollars every year.

The Republicans are onto something here. Let's hear a vigorous debate this fall over whether Missouri taxpayers can afford this much government, or whether we're entitled to much-needed tax relief.