MISSOURI FACES A ROCKY COURSE

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Sylvester Stallone in

"Rocky IV"

The just-convened First Session of the 86th Missouri General Assembly has gotta do an awful lot between now and May 17 to meet the expectations of 5.1 million Missourians, not all of whom appreciate the number of difficult problems to be overcome. It is a task that would test the combined strength of the original Rocky and the four subsequent ones.

The agenda facing this year's session is both difficult and demanding, formidable because of both its size and its complexity. It is made all the more complicated by the time in which we live and where we live. Missouri is now buffeted by a national tide of recession, heightened by hard times in two major industrial sectors: auto manufacturing and defense weapons. The state's largest employer, McDonnell Douglas Corp., was undergoing a slowdown in weapons orders when it was hit with a Pentagon cancellation of the multibillion-dollar A-12 airplane contract.

All of this negative activity will put a crimp in state tax collections and increase demands on Jefferson City to handle higher unemployment payments, growing personal and corporate bankruptcies and a spiraling rate of inflation.

Today, the status quo would look like paradise. Tomorrow, it will be recalled fondly.

Despite this disturbing litany of problems, the state's Legislature must come to grips with problems that have been postponed far too long. Let us list some of them, reserving the right to add still others in later columns.

Priority No. 1: This is unquestionably the budget, more accurately Missouri's lower-than-average revenue that must fuel literally hundreds of programs that feed, educate, maintain and treat hundreds of thousands of our citizens. Legislators now gathered in Jefferson City no longer have the luxury of allocating new funds. There aren't any. New-source funds can only be money that was previously spent for other programs. There isn't a single lawmaker in the Capitol who promised voters he or she would go to Jefferson City to rob Peter to pay Paul. The assembly has little choice but to consider new levies to enhance the state treasury.

Priority No. 2: In order to make certain that all money collected is being spent wisely, this session should not assume that previous appropriations for programs are written in concrete. Earlier programs must be reviewed, and where funds are found to be wasted, revisions are in order. Lawmakers should halt the awful practice of automatically approving so-called "core" budget requests, which grant agencies carte blanche to continue wasteful practices and needless projects. Close examination of all departmental requests is essential in these times of scarce cash.

Priority No. 3: For its own sake, not to mention the public's, legislators must take the necessary steps to assure that the highest ethical standards are maintained in government. In light of recent publicity, lawmakers must become as virtuous as Caesar's wife, not only moral but graced with the appearance of morality. The public suspects all of its servants these days, and it is made all the more suspicious by savings and loan, banking, insurance and housing scandals. Common sense rules for important state leaders must be written and enforced, with no allowances permitted for too-clever accounting manipulation that permits escape-hatches for the well placed. No more Dewey Trumps, please.

Priority No. 4: It belongs in first place, but its position is dependent on some of the priorities above. The state this year must make progress in improving its local schools and its colleges and universities. If we cannot properly educate our young children and adequately train our college students, why have a state government? Education and its improvement must be the overriding consideration of this year's General Assembly. Looking for new ways to improve local schools and state universities has become a waste of time by now. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has a ready list of what's needed to make our kids smarter and better equipped for the next century. College presidents and boards know what they need to restore the state's dimmed luster on higher education. Let's end the searching for how and just do it. We don't have to accomplish this agenda in one session, but let's make a start and let's make it a good one with enough momentum to continue the progress in future sessions. More planning only provides more road maps, when we already know the route we should take.

Priority No. 5: The state has been forewarned by scandals in other states, so no one in Jefferson City should remain uninformed about the hidden dangers of inadequately regulated insurance companies. Existing regulations are too lax, and too many Missourians have already been stung by shyster underwriters. Reform measures have already been written and introduced. Again, it's not a case of deciding what to do, but having the will to do it. This session had better enact regulatory improvements or it will live in infamy and will deserve it.

Priority No. 6: Legislators who drove to the state capital for the January 9 opening must have noticed that the roads they traveled were less than satisfactory. It's no secret Missouri's roads and bridges are deteriorating faster than they can be repaired. The federal government not only withholds highway funds that are due the state but enacts new taxes that make it harder for states to gather new revenue on their own. When he was governor 30 years ago, Warren Hearnes urged Missouri to build some toll roads, but opponents had a better idea: keep taxes low and build more freeways. We see the result of that idea today, with urban congestion a veritable nightmare and outstate roads crumbling from heavier-than-expected traffic and heavier and heavier truck loads. We can save tax dollars and improve our highways with pay-as-you-go toll roads that relieve congestion and speed traffic. It may be the only way to keep our highway infrastructure from total collapse, but it will require legislative leadership and action.

Enough already. It's not that other priorities aren't important. They are. But there's a limit on how many trees should be cut to supply the newsprint for one session of one legislature. The moral is there for all to recognize: Missouri's legislators gotta do what they gotta do.