KINDER'S COMMENTARY: VO-TECH FUNDING HAS GREEN LIGHT SO FAR

Those of us who have been working for an appropriation of $3.15 million in state funds for a new area vocational-technical school in Cape Girardeau are hopeful that such an amount will be forthcoming in the proposed budget submitted next week by Gov. Mel Carnahan. Superintendent Dan Tallent, who has acquired a reputation as a straight shooter, was in town this week making the rounds and getting good early signals. The State Board of Education included the recommended amount in its budget request a few weeks ago. The governor submits his budget and accompanying message next Wednesday. Cape Girardeau's public schools have been hurt by the new formula for distributing state aid to local districts and could sure use the good news for a change. A positive report would give a massive boost to efforts to pass a much-needed school bond issue this April.

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Pay raise follies?

Things are getting dicey on the proposed pay raise for Missouri lawmakers and judges, and a prediction made here last month that they were dead on arrival may have to be revised. I'd put the odds on the raises' going through at 50-50. That increase (22 percent for lawmakers, 30 percent for some judges) goes into effect Feb. 1 unless explicitly rejected by a majority vote of both the House and Senate prior to that date. We were sworn in to office just Jan. 8 and thus had barely three weeks (now barely two) to reject the proposal, a product of a new constitutional commission on the compensation of elected officials adopted by voters in 1994. Everyone up here in Jefferson City is talking about it, and more than a few are nervously hoping to remain in the tall grass long enough, doing nothing, to allow it to take effect.

Out of 15 Senate Republicans, 13 (including this writer) have signed on to co-sponsoring resolutions of disapproval. We have been joined by five Senate Democrats who help us make a majority of the 34-member body. In the House, a bipartisan group of 60-something members, also heavily Republican, have signed on to similar resolutions. One strategy for supporters of higher pay may be to assign these resolutions to a committee and there to bury them. Should that begin to unfold, an effort will be made to take it forthwith to a floor vote.

As this is being written Wednesday morning, hearings will be held on the resolutions of disapproval this afternoon. At these hearings, members of the commission who made the recommendation will appear to tell inquisitive senators and representatives what planet they are on when recommending that associate circuit judges should make $99,000 annually. We'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, even pay raise supporters such as my good friend, Sen. John Schneider, D-St. Louis, are publicly announcing their agreement with me that we should get busy and repeal this commission. That will take a constitutional amendment that would be submitted to the voters to undo what was done in 1994. All this vindicates the votes of those of us who opposed the whole scheme back then.

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Ban on partial-birth abortion

Next Tuesday, one day prior to the 24th anniversary of the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision, I'll be introducing a measure to outlaw partial-birth abortions in Missouri. We already have a good, bipartisan group of co-sponsors for my bill and are gaining more each day. A senior Democrat told me he wants to "put that one on the governor's desk: to see whether he will sign or veto such a measure, as he has other pro-life bills.

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Frigid inauguration Day

The pomp and ceremony of another gubernatorial inauguration has come and gone in your state capitol, with a decision to move the ceremony indoors for the first time in 36 years. Many Cape Girardeans were in town for the festivities and joined everyone else in applauding the governor for having made the correct decision to cancel the outdoor portion of the events due to extremely harsh weather.

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