MISSOURI WATCH: LEGISLATURE FAILS TO ADDRESS THE FUTURE

At the close of each session of their General Assembly, Missourians reach a perfectly logical inference that the state's major problems have been dealt with and all that remains is to observe how well our society moves ahead with the solutions that have been agreed upon. This inference is helped along by statements traditionally issued at the close of annual sessions by leaders, members and those who gained legislative approval of their individual requests.

Majority party leaders are especially lavish in their praise of the legislative truly-agreed-to-and-finally-passed agenda, fearful that anything short of unstinting praise will somehow convey the impression that nearly six months of work by 163 state representatives and 34 state senators was frivolously wasted. Depending on how badly lawmakers have axed his State of the State proposals, the governor-of-the-moment provides a modicum amount of glory on every finished session in order not to convey the impression that he stood idly by while 197 men and women on the third floor of the Capitol twiddled their thumbs.

The first session of this year's 90th General Assembly will unquestionably never make it into the historical annals of great legislative bodies, not because members failed to enact the requisite number of bills, which they have, but for the simple reason that few of Missouri's most critical problems were ever examined and virtually none of them was resolved.

Indeed, in the nagging dilemma department, one could barely spot any member of the Legislature who even displayed an interest in offering any reasonable solution.

The central focus of this year's session appears to have been on correcting minor problems, offering technical changes that have little or no effect on anyone save a minuscule minority and avoiding much serious discussion on how to create effective policies of governance.

The long-standing brouhaha over abortion did receive full legislative attention, but once again the question dealt with a very small number of abortions -- the exact number has never been statistically identified -- and the much larger question of this medical procedure was left hanging for future sessions. Had it not been for the unrelenting opposition to so-called partial-birth abortions by pro-life advocates, it is doubtful this question would have even been discussed.

The most graphic illustration of this fixation for avoiding major problems can be found in the lists of finally passed bills. Most of these were relatively technical, relatively unimportant and relatively obscure. Many dealt with corrections required within a single municipality, a lone county or an individual state office. Many of the bills were so technical that anyone reading the list would have difficulty identifying the original dilemma, as witness the summary of House Bill 39 which reads: "Makes changes in the requirements for inspections for lead hazards."

There were countless measures that had a similar ring to them. How about HB 76, with a summary that reads: "Allows trustees to make certain discretionary distributions for the benefit of others"? Here's the summary of HB 79: "Revises the exceptions to the crime of animal fighting." In this instance, the legislature decided that an emergency clause was required on a referendum Missouri voters approved less than two months before the start of this year's session. House Bill 152's summary states: "Eliminates annual sewer system meeting and report requirement." A couple of bills down the list, citizens will find HB 152 with this summary: "Removes the December 31, 2001, sunset on the agriculture demonstration awards program." The irony of this particular bill is that it anticipates a potential problem three and a half years in the future at the same time the General Assembly was failing to deal with critical problems that exist at this moment for the entire state.

It is important to recognize that lawmakers in this session spent the requisite number of hours carrying out the agendas of their leaders. They did not shirk their duties in deliberating the legislative calendars that were set for them. They attended, as religiously as any session, hours-long committee hearings on the measures that were introduced.

The problem is that the agenda of this first session of the 90th General Assembly was similar to John Nance Garner's description of his job as Vice President of the United States: "Not worth a bucket of spit."

The Good and Decent Citizens of the Great State of Missouri have some horrendous problems facing them, even if our elected officials in their anticipation of next year's elections, are strenuously avoiding them. If you doubt this, please read this all-too-brief litany of some of the unresolved and unattended dilemmas of the Show-Me State:

-- Voters have lost control of the system now employed to choose our public officials, while witnessing the virtual buying of important state positions with the aid of huge gobs of special interest money.

-- Although the state annually collects billions of extra revenue dollars, we have yet to devise medical programs that will meet even the minimum needs of uninsured citizens.

-- Despite the expenditure of millions for more and more prisons, the state has adopted no reasonable strategy for reducing ever-increasing numbers of first-time drug offenders.

-- Virtually no relief has been extended to low income senior citizens who have seen their life savings depleted just to pay taxes for services they no longer need nor receive.

-- Missouri's reserve and back-up funding for virtually certain recessionary periods is inadequate to maintain existing, not to mention new, assistance programs.

This is only the start of a long agenda of problems Missourians will face that were ignored this session. How tragic.