LETTERS: PANEL MEMBERS GIVE ANOTHER VIEW

To the editor:

As members of the Budget Committee, we would like to address the inaccurate information put forward by state Rep. Joe Heckemeyer concerning the loss of vo-tech funding for Southeast Missouri. His personal and partisan attack on state Rep. Mary Kasten was inappropriate and misleading.

Heckemeyer was quoted in Friday's Southeast Missourian as saying that Mary Kasten "was embarrassing" because she did not ask for a roll-call vote when the committee decided to reduce funding for the vo-tech proposal.

Heckemeyer's assertion that a roll-call vote in the Budget Committee would have changed the vote is false. It would have made no difference, except to infuriate members of the committee and to make it harder to add funding back for the vo-tech school in the future. Mary Kasten is a team player.

For the Budget Committee to accomplish writing a multibillion-dollar state budget, it takes cooperation, not grandstanding. Kasten's actions offer the best hope to restore funding. Joe Heckemeyer's claim that Mary Kasten sat idly by if false.

Kasten has been one, if not the most, energetic and hardworking supporters of education throughout her career in the Legislature, on the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents and her service on the Cape Girardeau School Board. She has put her support for education above party and politics at every opportunity.

This mean-spirited attack was not only an attempt to destroy Kasten's lifelong public service record, but an attempt to use the vo-tech funding issue for political gain.

The real story here is that Heckemeyer knew funding for the vo-tech project was going to be deleted. Instead of working with Kasten to save the funding, he chose to participate in a coordinated effort with close allies on the committee to lay the blame on Kasten.

Heckemeyer serves on the Budget Committee and attended the meeting. The project impacts students in his district. Yet Joe chose not to call for a roll-call vote or to warn Kasten of the motion. His choice was to call news organizations less than 30 minutes after the vote and criticize Kasten.

What makes this to hypocritical is this: It was Heckemeyer's own motion to cut funding for the vo-tech school by $100,000 that was later amended to cut the entire $1.5 million appropriation. The representative who made the motion to delete the funding is a personal friend of Joe's, a member of Joe's party and sits next to Joe in the committee.

So do not be misled. If funding is not restored, it will be due to the fact Joe Heckemeyer chose to put partisanship before our children's education.

We suspect that in the next few weeks, through cooperation and hard work by Kasten, funding may be restored for the vo-tech center. However, don't be surprised if Heckemeyer will step in and attempt to claim credit. Heckemeyer has made a career out of making partisan attacks based on half-truths and innuendoes. It's time he started working more for the people he is supposed to represent and less for his own re-election.

STATE REP. KEN LEGAN

145th District

Halfway

STATE REP. BILL FOSTER

156th District

Poplar Bluff

STATE REP. DAN HEGEMAN

5th District

Crosby