KINDER'S COMMENTARY: OPPONENTS OF TAX BREAK FOR EDUCATION EXPENSES BLOCK TAX CUT

With adjournment mandated by the Constitution for May 15 at 6 p.m., we are down to the final two weeks of this year's legislative session. Herewith, a few observations on the final hectic days.

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After a full day of work, we senators recessed Wednesday evening at 6 o'clock for a dinner break before returning at 8 o'clock for a night session. On the agenda that night was this year's tax-cut measure -- tiny, but still one that would have returned a little under $100 million to hard-pressed taxpayers. A bipartisan filibuster launched by opponents of a small, education-expenses tax break for parents with children in any school -- public, private or parochial -- continued until 1:15 a.m. Thursday. At that hour, the majority floor leader called it off for the evening, and we exhausted senators filed out of the chamber. It would appear that one casualty of that grueling evening is the tax-cut measure for this year.

If that forecast holds, the Hancock Amendment will kick in, and Missourians will again receive income-tax refund checks. Thank God for Mel Hancock, the Springfield businessman and former congressman who spearheaded the 1980 effort, by initiative petition, to persuade voters to pass the tax-limitation amendment that bears his name. This amendment mandates that Missouri government revenue can't grow faster than personal income, or the state must refund excess taxes collected back to the people.

On top of this, three years ago we passed another amendment requiring a vote of the people on any proposal that would require a tax increase of $50 million or two percent of state revenue, whichever is less. The result is that for all its imperfections, Missouri has perhaps the strongest taxpayer protection mechanism of any state.

We need tax-limit measures like these on the federal level, such as the two-thirds supermajority for raising taxes that congressional Republicans are trying to pass.

Meanwhile, we supporters of parental freedom in education, or school choice as it is known, will continue our years-long battle. Here's hoping that this year's elections will swell our numbers in both House and Senate.

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Final action on the $15.9 billion state budget awaits us this week. My colleague, Steve Ehlmann, the Republican floor leader from St. Charles, notes that he came to Jefferson City 10 years ago to serve in the House before joining the Senate after the 1992 election. The 1988 state budget was approximately $8 billion. He says that if he had run that year on a platform of doubling the state budget in a decade, he wouldn't have won, and that no candidate in either party so campaigns. Such is the inevitable growth of government, even with a Hancock Amendment and other protections in place. One scholarly study has demonstrated that pressures on lawmakers for more spending vastly outweigh the interests of taxpayers. Witnesses appearing before legislative committees urging more spending -- many of whom are themselves government-funded -- outnumber witnesses representing taxpayers by 130-1.

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It was a real pleasure to be the host for visitors in the Capitol from three school groups this week. Wednesday, we had a group from May Greene School and another from Immaculate Conception in Jackson, while Thursday saw a visit by a large group from Clippard School. We are always glad to have these school and other groups as visitors to your state Capitol. That magnificent building, perched high overlooking the Missouri River, is thought by many to be the most beautiful of any state capitol in America.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.