MISSOURI WATCH: NEW YEAR FOR OLD PROBLEMS

Thoughtful Missourians will recognize that as their state enters a new year, it brings with it an abundant number of old problems that continue to defy resolution. Hopefully, this will not be the case at the end of 1998, although the worrisome persistence of numerous dilemmas in the Show-Me State would counsel against undue optimism.

Perhaps the best that Missourians can hope for in the next 12 months is a serious examination and intelligent debate on disturbing problems that, left unresolved, will have a debilitating effect on life in the future. Indeed, some of these problems appear to be so debilitating that the ability of far too many citizens to maintain even the status quo is at best questionable, and at worst virtually impossible.

One of the least recognized challenges facing the state is one that is often quickly brushed aside even by those who have only the best of intentions. For starters, it's worth noting that Missouri is presently being governed by a constitution that is rnore than half a century old. One of the longest in the nation, it is also one of the most restrictive, reflecting the tone of many 19th century charters that sought to provide a layer of citizen participation and control that oftentimes never crystallized or materialized.

Missouri's Constitution, which was started in 1942 and presented to voters at the end of World War II hostilities in 1945, doesn't even recognize the existence of suburban communities that are now home for the largest segment of the state's 5.4 million citizens. The charter doesn't recognize these jurisdictions because they simply did not exist in any number a half century ago. The Constitution also permits antiquated jurisdictions, such as townships, that are useless except in adding to the cost of governance, i.e., unneeded taxes.

Furthermore, the present Constitution places a heavy reliance on tax revenue that finances such essential services as public schools from sources that are basically regressive and inequitable. The 1945 charter, which took its basic form from its last major rewriting in 1875, adopted the basic premise of an era in which agriculture was the principal industry of the state. Since 175, however, both our state and the nation have passed from the Agricultural Era to the Industrial Age, and we are now quickly moving into another time frame known as the Technology Era.

Missouri in 199 is two eras behind, with no sign that anyone is interested in catching up. Indeed, were it not for the initiative referendum process, we would still be waiting for the discovery of electric lights and the telephone.

It is bad enough to operate under forms of governance that are nearly a century and a half old, but the worst part is that in the interim we have altered and adopted changes that have actually worsened the problems we face. hen the property taxes once collected by townships and municipalities for the sole support of public education proved inadequate to meet even the decades-old requirements of local schools, Missouri's answer was to spend a portion of state government revenue to supplement these costs. Rather than correcting an inequitable form of financing, we simply bandaged the crisis by expanding it.

When the General Assembly deals with how Missourians are governed, members instinctively look for resolutions by counties, as if these geographical areas were similar and equal. Excluding such obvious states as California and Texas, Missouri has one of the largest number of jurisdictional components in the country, and we are left with some counties that have a smaller population than wards in suburban and small-city communities. These counties, relying on property taxes and usually a supplemental sales tax, must then perform duties and provide services that are under-funded by regressive taxes.

In this instance, the tax burdens are so great and the resources so limited that such areas will never be able to develop and prosper, while struggling to provide services that are never adequate. As long as this condition is permitted to exist, Missouri will continually have a large number of underdeveloped regions that serve to detract from the rest of the state and forever doom us to a second-rate status.

By following an assignment process that was ruled unconstitutional a quarter of a century ago, Missouri has maintained a legislative branch of government that is almost doomed to failure before any session begins. Using a formula that was first utilized in Missouri in 1836, the legislative branch is divided into two sections, one reasonably small and one unreasonably large, thereby installing a system that provides for careful and wise consideration in the first instance and nothing sometimes less than total confusion in the second instance. By some compulsion enhanced by unwise tradition, we have deemed that our state's legislative body shall be systemically dysfunctional. And then we blame those who attempt to work within the system for the faults that we ourselves have designed and perpetuated.

Back in 1940, Missourians adopted a plan that in its day was considered revolutionary: we initiated a process whereby certain members of our judicial system would be selected on the basis of merit rather than political affiliation. This system still bears the generic name of the Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan, but something strange happened in our state when it came time to implement such a logical system throughout our courts: politics. We decided that some judges could be selected on their merit and some would be decided on the basis of their politics, and this is the way our system still works as we approach the half-century mark of this system.

Missourians who express dissatisfaction with the results of government should pause to examine the system which produces them. Therein lies the rub. Happy Old Year, Missouri!

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