MISSOURI MOVES INTO FIFTH SEASON OF YEAR

CAPITAL CHRONICLES

In addition to the four seasons of the year, Missouri has a fifth season, also known as the 6-P Season: the Perennial Period of Pure Political Panic and Pandemonium.

This is the time of the year, just before and immediately following, the required adjournment of the Missouri General Assembly. In the initial days of the 6-P Season, there is panic for fear legislators will not have sufficient time to enact at least the important items on their calendar, and considering the snail-like pace of the 1993 session, the trepidation was not misplaced. The pandemonium sets in following adjournment, when the entire state, including poorly informed lawmakers, awaits word on just exactly what was enacted, because believe it or not, a vast majority of the assembly's membership won't be conversant about the details of many bills until they have already been voted on, approved and sent downstairs to the governor's office.

Anyone who has ever watched the mass confusion, the puzzled countenances of befuddled legislators and the frantic movements of the elected representatives of the people in the final hours of a legislative session can only reach one conclusion: there has to be a better way to conduct the state's law-making process. Given the long history of the 6-P Season, however, there doesn't seem to be a foolproof remedy, despite the attempts of legislative leaders over the years to restore some degree of calm and contemplation to the entire process. Good-government advocates would be advised not to hold their breath, however.

The problem does not lend itself to an easy solution nor a couple of Excedrin.

---

~~ENCOURAGING ECONOMY: Economists at Missouri University's Business & Public Administration Research Center have just come up with some happy economic news for the state. The Columbia business experts are predicting a general improvement in Missouri's economy for the remainder of this year, with a couple of soft spots thrown in to temper our euphoria. A report the other day predicts an increase of 33,000 jobs in 1993, representing a 1.3 percent increase over last year's levels. Despite the new jobs, the number entering the labor force will exceed the supply, giving the state a slight boost in its unemployment rate, from 6.0 percent in 1992 to around 6.3 percent this year.

Research center staffers say the generally improving economy this year should translate into higher personal income growth, which will average 6.3 percent, compared to an expected national growth rate of 5.4 percent.

Beyond 1993, M.U. economists note, the health of the state's economy is less certain. For 1994, Missouri is expected to add over 55,000 new jobs, but less than half that number will be recorded in 1995. In both 1994 and 1995, the jobless rate will average 6.4 percent, a slight increase above this year's expected rate, reflecting labor force growth that continues to outpace growth in new-job creation. The state's increasing joblessness will become a drag on personal income growth, which will slow in both 1994 and 1995 to below those for the nation as a whole.

Missouri had a mixed economic year in 1992, with a personal income growth that was 5.3 percent higher than in 1991. Much of this increase was due to an increase in non-wage and salary incomes. The state's employment grew by 1.3 percent in 1992, which was above the national average of~ less than 1 percent.

---

~MISSOURI MISERY: Although volumes have been written about poor economic conditions and the absence of job opportunities in South Central Los Angeles, Missourians should realize that at least four counties in their own state actually have higher jobless rates than the riot-torn section in the City of the Angels. The South Central unemployment rate is currently 18.1 percent, nearly three times the rate for Missouri as a whole, but in our state's Stone County the rate is nearly 25 percent (24.9) unemployed. The other three with higher rates than in the L.A. section are Taney County, 20.7 percent; Iron County, 19.6 percent; and Washington County, 18.8 percent.

---

~MORTALITY MOVEMENT: The best news in recent days is a report that Missouri's infant mortality rate is decreasing and now stands at the lowest level ever recorded here. Once ranking just below rates in Third World nations, Missouri's infant death rate dropped 17 percent last year, from 10.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1991 to 8.5 in 1992. With the improvement, our state's infant mortality rate is approximately the same as the national rate of 8.6 percent. Health officials say the decreases occurred in both the two metropolitan areas as well as in outstate.

The overall rate diminished because of a comprehensive program encouraging women to seek early prenatal care and an expansion in 1992 of the state's Medicaid program. Some 38 percent of all births in Missouri last year were covered by Medicaid, up from 36 percent in 1991.

The down side is that the death rate for black children is 2.3 times greater than for white infants. While the mortality rate for blacks dropped 25 percent from 21.3 to 16.0 deaths per 1,000 live births, the white infant death rate declined from 7.9 to 6.9 deaths. State health department officials believe the disparity can be traced to inadequate prenatal are, which for blacks was 35.4 percent as opposed to a 12.6 percent rate for whites.

---

~~POLITICAL PEOPLE: Missouri's oldest First Lady, Kitty Stark, died the other day in St. Louis. She was the wife of Lloyd C. Stark, who served as governor from 1937 to 1941, and became the first in a long series of gubernatorial wives who worked to restore the beauty and majesty of the executive mansion......Missouri's most recent gift to the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas, recently told the Wall Street Journal he wants to remain on the bench for 34 years -- the same time he says "the world stuck it" to him, adding "It's pay-back time."