MISSOURI WATCH: LAMENTATIONS ON LETHARGY IN LEGISLATURE

It could be considered unseemly to excoriate the record of an annual session of the Missouri General Assembly before it has even ended. Looking at it from an objective point of view, it's like a minister or priest reading an obituary before the parishioner has died.

But looking at the subject from another standpoint, it could be true that the "parishioner," a.k.a. the state Legislature, could already be dead without too many recognizing its termination.

Without waiting for a final corpus viewing, this second session of the 88th General Assembly has, thus far, accomplished next to nothing, with little in the immediate offing to transform pessimism into wild, even mild, enthusiasm. The legislative body seems to just lie there, comatose, lifeless, barely breathing. 'Tis a shame, for the body had such great potential that at this point in the session seems virtually unrealized.

No doubt these lamentations will bring down great wrath upon the writer from these directly involved in this state of lethargy, but the critics will be hard-pressed to defend a session that is at this writing still debating such weighty questions as the design of license plates and whether to keep alive the ill advised policy of dispensing millions of tax dollars to construct hometown chamber of commerce-type projects.

Let it be noted that few are held culpable for sessions that bear no fruit, since the proportionate share of blame spread among 197 legislators makes it extremely easy to blame the other fellow or the other political party or some other real or imaginary culprit. When discussing legislative failures, the use of the pronoun "they" is always the favorite word when describing what happened to earlier campaign promises. Literally translated, "they" means anyone but the accused.

The central problem of legislative lethargy is the failure of so many members, particularly the most recent, to recognize the difference between the legislative process and lawmaking. It is necessary to have the process, because it produces laws, but it is not a substitute for lawmaking. Too many legislators seem to believe that if they go through the motions of introducing a measure and following it through the reading process, their job has been accomplished. They view the mere act of introducing, reading and supporting a bill is all that's required. The missing component, however, is the enactment of laws that serve to benefit the state and the defeat of bills that will serve to harm it.

A serious consideration for those who pay the bills for the legislative branch of government is the cost of sessions that neither enact good legislation nor succeed in deep-sixing bills that are harmful. Last year's session, which enacted 168 bills, with 10 percent of these being appropriation measures, did so at a cost to Missouri citizens of $25,351,492. That figures out to be $150,901.74 for every bill, significant or not, that was approved.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, the cost of this year's session went up a couple of million and instead of $25.3 million, the cost will be $28,411,545. That's a substantial increase, without evidence of discernible improvement.

It has become more and more obvious on the third floor of the Capitol that the workload of sessions has increasingly become out of balance. More and more important legislation is being handled by fewer and fewer members. It is possible to point to a mere handful in both the House and Senate who do most of the work on important measures, while finding more and more who do less and less. Indeed, the object of far too many members seems to be to introduce special interest bills to placate constituents and thus relieve political pressure within members' home districts. Unfortunately, term limits will soon deprive the state of many of its best lawmakers, leaving those who have never learned the difference between following the legislative process and writing significant laws.

One of the worst consequences of all of this has been the tendency to inject partisan politics into the lawmaking machinery of state government. Following the agenda of political parties has become increasingly prevalent, thus assuring that bills that would benefit the state as a whole have a diminished chance of success. If this unfortunate partisan trend continues, Missourians will soon find that their tax paid legislative process is totally unresponsive to the overall needs of the state, serving only to enhance the chances of success of the political parties at the next election.

We regret to report that the demise of responsible, enlightened lawmaking appears to be increasingly imminent.

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