MISSOURI WATCH: GOVERNMENT BY DIBS AND DABS

Without realizing it, Missourians are wasting millions of dollars by ignoring a simple, cost-effective means of ending the useless expenditure of tax revenue. Each time a constitutional amendment, submitted either by the General Assembly or through the initiative referendum process, is presented to voters, the public must shell out additional tax dollars to fund the process, and while there is absolutely nothing improper about amending the constitution, there comes a time when public interest is least served by this means.

We may well have reached that point in 1995.

Consider that, at this moment, there are nearly 40 proposed amendments to the constitution now on the Bill Index of this session of the General Assembly. Since there is still time to file additional measures, the chances are pretty good that legislators will have to decide on a field of more than 40 proposals. Not all of them will make the grade, and some are even duplicates, but there are several substantive issues addressed in these amendments and they may or may not be submitted to voters, depending upon political whim.

Missouri has stood in need of a revised constitution for several years, and while the last time the issue of a convention was rather soundly rejected by voters, the need for revision is not altered in the least. Perhaps if voters realized just how much these amendments were costing them, they might be more amenable to what is clearly required as the state prepares to enter a new century and a new millennium: a state constitutional convention, with delegates from all regions of the state selected by the voters.

Missouri's last convention, which began during the days of World War II and culminated with public approval of the new document in 1945, is now 50 years old. While this may be below the lifespan of the average Missourian, it doesn't require much recollecting to realize how much our state, our society and our citizens have changed in half a century. In a recent column I noted the difference between Missouri's budget in the 1940's and today, and this is but a small part of the transformation that has occurred in the past 50 years.

Emulating the 1875 constitution, the 1945 document was extremely lengthy, too much so, because detail is not only crippling to enlightened government, it is so specific that it requires amending whenever relatively minor obstacles occur. The amendment that is being submitted to voters April 4 is an example. In the so-called "Ellisville" case, the Supreme Court correctly noted that a constitutional restriction, which was circumvented for years by lawmakers, voided a needed revision in St. Louis County. Seeking to avoid the unconstitutionality of hundreds of previously enacted bills, the General Assembly had little alternative but to submit an amendment to voters at the earliest possible moment. The cost of this election, and those that have preceded it, has been monumental, amounting to millions and millions of dollars that could be put to better use in public schools, hospitals and universities.

There is inadequate space to list more than a few of the changes that have occurred in the state over the past 50 years that should be addressed through changes in the way in which governments function . For example, the state ' s suburban population has escalated dramatically in five decades, yet the 1945 document doesn't begin to address the problems created by this change. Missouri is moving into a new era, something called the Information Revolution, yet it is still governed by political subdivisions that were in use 150 years ago. The state 's welfare and mental health services have changed dramatically since the 1940s, yet the constitution either ignores these now-important functions or assigns them goals that are no longer germane. Furthermore, it is time for Missouri to address the need to empower units of government that are closer to those being served rather than administer local programs from Jefferson City. The state 's entire public education program, from kindergarten to higher education, is restricted by constitutional components that were written when regional universities were known as "normal colleges" that trained future teachers. These governmental artifacts are just some of many that need altering, amending or canceling.

Missouri has the second longest state constitution in America as well as one of the oldest. It should have neither as the state prepares for a new century with new challenges.

~Jack Stapleton is a Kennett columnist who keeps tabs on state government in Jefferson City.