LETTERS: CREDIT GOES TO HANCOCK

To the editor:

A 3 percent reduction of sales tax on food has finally been signed into law. It looks like some of the folks in Jefferson City have gotten serious about tax relief -- or does it?

Many news sources have presented this legislation as the culmination of many months of arduous effort on the part of our governor. Will Governor Carnahan go down in history as the great tax reliever? I doubt that he will, if historians consider the rest of the story.

You see, a tax cut is mandated by the Missouri Constitution, since state revenue has exceeded the limits set forth by the Hancock Amendment. They had no choice. They had to give us a tax cut, and when they did it, it was as little as they could get by with constitutionally. What's more, the Carnahan administration has not yet returned the results from over-taxing us in fiscal years 1995 and 1996. It's not all their fault, though, because the refund is being held up by a lawsuit filed by the state auditor's office. It seems the governor wants to return about $1 billion less than the auditor says is due is.

There is more evidence that Carnahan is not the great tax reliever he would like us to think he is. Look no further than the history of our state budget. The fiscal 1993 total operating budget was $10.2 billion. The proposed budget for fiscal 1998 is $14.7 billion. The first five years of the Carnahan administration have produced a whopping 43 percent increase in the size of our state government and a 43 percent increase in the taxes we pay.

It is clear that the governor is no friend of the taxpayer, nor is he a friend of those concerned about too much government.

RON CALZONE

Dixon, Mo.