INTRIGUING QUESTION IN LATEST REFUND SUIT

A lawsuit by the Conservation Federation of Missouri has raised an intriguing question. At issue is whether the voter-approved eighth-cent conservation sales tax should be included in the mix of state revenue that triggered refunds under the Hancock Amendment.

Just a short while ago, the Missouri Supreme Court cleared the way for refunds after several attempts to block them. Included in the court's findings were which funds should be counted as total state revenue, which isn't permitted to grow faster than Missourian's own total income. State Auditor Margaret Kelly has argued, for example, that hundreds of millions of additional dollars should have been counted, but the court excluded some revenue sources she cited.

The interesting part of this latest lawsuit is that there are other state taxes that have been approved by voters for specific purposes. One is the soil and conservation sales tax. If the conservation federation is successful, would similar taxes also be taken out of the mix? And what effect would all that have on the overall refunds?

Right now, there is nothing standing in the way of the refunds, and state officials are continuing to process the checks to be issued as early as next month.