MISSOURI WATCH: A SESSION OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

When faced with making a fair and accurate assessment of any session of the Missouri General Assembly, it is possible to use one of these summaries:

1. The session responded to constituent needs and priorities.

2. Many constituent items on the session agenda were left untouched and unattended to.

3. Special interests were denied all the items sought during the session.

4. The needs of special interests came first during critical periods in the session.

5. The Legislature could have done a better job, considering the opportunities to do so.

When faced with making a fair and accurate assessment of this year's Second Session of the Eighty-eighth Missouri General Assembly, it would be accurate to say that all five of the above assessments would be correct.

This year's session did respond to some constituent needs, while ignoring various other priorities, and it did not perform all the errands asked by special interests but cave in to these interests during disappointing moments. And, yes, this session could have done a better job, but the consolation is that it performed better than some in recent past.

Second sessions of most Legislatures are traditionally ones in which fewer goals are reached and an explanation is not hard to come by: second sessions occur in election years, when political players become more cautious than usual, more readily satisfied with the status quo in order not to disturb the voters and upset home district constituencies. Tax increases occur more often in first sessions, while those held in election years concentrate more on dispensing services, rebates, abatements and other favored election weapons.

The 1996 session of the General Assembly began under a cloud that could have darkened its 42 months of tenure, but the resignation of Speaker Bob Griffin cleared the way for a much more harmonious time than was in store last January. Although his enemies on both sides of the aisle had already consigned him to prison, it is interesting to note that the former representative remains unindicted and had no legal reason to resign as speaker or member of the House. Opponents cannot even seem to give him credit for seeking to avoid the impasse that detractors were determined to create had Griffin remained in office. Which may say more about Griffin's opponents than the overly partisan speaker.

The new leadership, wisely working more closely with the minority, provided the state with a more amenable assembly, although the partisan plague remains more contagious in the House than in the more collegial Senate. Party loyalty is often a deterrent to sound legislation, but strangely enough it serves at other times to produce an improved bill that better suits a population of 5.3 million citizens.

The greatest disappointment of the 1996 session was its failure to produce some measure of tax relief for low-income families and the so-called working poor. This year provided an excellent opportunity to provide some fiscal gain for persons with small incomes and huge food bills. A reduction or elimination of the state sales tax on food purchases seemed to be an excellent opportunity for lawmakers to prove their declared interest in the poor, but when it came time to make this point, legislators turned to tax breaks for the affluent and feeding the frenzy to build and improve athletic stadiums.

Without an imperceptible miracle, the clumsy and inequitable method of refunding nearly $150 million in "excess" revenue under the Hancock Amendment will prevail and tax revenue provided by poor and rich alike will only be distributed to the rich. On the other hand, lawmakers had plenty of time to enact such extraneous statutes as the prohibition against same-sex marriages, a practice countenanced in no state and one that presents no problem until a court decision at least two years away allows it. This bill is like preparing for a possible flood in the year 2012, and its passage ahead of tax relief for the poor says more about excessive politically correct jingoism than intelligent legislative priorities.

It is not possible to be as enthusiastic about the so-called economic development bill as the sponsors are, for the long, complicated measure bears gifts for the affluent at the expense of the rest of us, and more importantly, positions Missouri to engage in tax gift wars with competing states. Citizens will just have to accept the promise of sponsors that in the long run, it will aid the state's economy, even while in the short run it makes permanent such expenses as refurbishing professional athletic facilities.

To its credit, the session provided what appears to be a fairly reasonable deregulation of telephone service, although this process will not be painless for all sections of the state, with phone bills in numerous outstate areas excepted to climb after a few years. The old concept of protecting the consumer from excessive utility profits has been discarded in the free-fall of a free-economy mantra.

Greater medical care for delivering mothers became the responsibility not of the medical-hospital industry nor of "caring" insurance companies but of the elected representatives of the people. The outrageous dismissal of mothers with their newborn in their arms after one day in the hospital was finally corrected in Jefferson City. A real plus.

Problems such as environmental control for huge hogfeeding operations and increased emphasis on childhood immunization are also welcome pluses from the session. And when it comes to enacting tougher jail sentences, legislators attack this subject with enthusiasm, even if there is always a paucity of what to do with more delinquents and criminals.

We are led to believe, from a vast display of disinterest, that legislators have no problem with accepting free gifts from lobbyists and those seeking special favors. We have a feeling, however, such complacency is not shared by constituents, and we recommend lawmakers get ready for the anger they have justly earned by their ethical indifference.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.