MISSOURI WATCH: SOME SWEET, SOME SOUR

No one who ever witnesses a session of the Missouri General Assembly would describe it as a harmonious symphony whose members give a perfect performance, providing listeners with joy, amazement and rapture.

Although some moments on the third floor of the august Missouri Capitol might seem to resonate with symphonic grace and precision, these are rare, not because orchestra members cannot read the music that is before them but because within each section of the group, there are some members playing an entirely different melody. If their tune is not heard during a single performance, then the overall performance is pleasing to the ear. On days when more than one piece is being played, the result is, predictably, sheer cacophony.

Imagine if you will a full symphony with 197 members, each with different training and talents, getting together in one place to perform a difficult program of totally diverse music, some of it classical, some modern, some regional, some original. Just try to conduct such a group, keeping it true to the original score, maintaining discipline that is difficult to achieve with temperamental artists, while pacing the score so performers start and end on the same note at the same time.

If you can imagine that, then you have some idea of how it is possible for a legislative session both to succeed and fail in its mission to represent the best interests of five and a half million "listeners," also known as Missouri citizens.

This year's Second Regular Session of the Eighty-Ninth General Assembly turned in as good a session as any of the five and a half million of us have a right to expect. In a year in which both a general election and a legislative session occur, many have come to expect four and a half months of partisan politics, enough to sicken even the most volatile yellow-dog partisan. That the session just ended had its share is not surprising; what is pleasing is that it did not severely interfere with the final, overall performance.

Stripped of the parochial concern that is part and parcel within a widely diverse state, the record of the session gave Missourians a substantial start in resolving the decades-long problem of school desegregation, an issue that has too long divided the state, with its factionalism and racism, not to mention its exorbitant cost to taxpayers. The solution was a long time in coming, but it was a difficult one to resolve and it was achieved on the backs of numerous previous failures. Passage of the state's plan ato end desegregation "remedies" should have produced a resounding sigh of relief from Rock Port to Caruthersville, from Clark County to McDonald County.

Perhaps the dividing lines that have created separate fiefdoms within Missouri can eventually be erased and the state can return to the essential function of educating all children without regard to race or geography.

Given the number of tax-relief and tax-incentive measures approved in the session, this year's legislators gave away millions of dollars, which should be pleasing to both the deserving and the special interest groups. We now have more incentives to improve young Missourians' lives than we have ever had before, accompanied by numerous gifts to corporate interests. Understanding that this is a part of today's business-oriented society does not satisfy the purists among us, but it does pay recognition to the realities that face us.

The biggest single bite into Missourians' tax funds is taken in our attempt to meet the maintenance and health needs of nearly one-fifth of our population. Thirty-eight cents out of every dollar of the $16 billion budget will go to provide assistance to low-income families, health-endangered individuals and young children. The constituency for this assistance is so huge and the number of programs available is so large that none of us will ever know whether we are spending the public's money as wisely as possible and providing help where it is most needed. We can only guess, and this alternative includes those who provide programs and those who legislatively sustain them.

This year's session was wise enough to recognize the wisdom of the saying when all else fails, punt. Members did this in the matter of concealed weapons, an issue that has been around nearly as long as abortion, education alternatives and special interest lobbyists. Faced with a persistent threat of gubernatorial veto, with votes enough to pass but not enough to override, proponents of concealed weapons for licensed private citizens finally took the only realistic solution: let the public decide. That's not bad government; it's political realism.

Understandably (see political observations above) our lawmakers didn't deal with two major systemic problems within Missouri: campaign spending and special interest influence. These two unresolved issues have as much bearing on state government as any of the 236 bills enacted this year. As is true on both the state and federal level, the problems raised by excessive campaign spending have as great an influence over the quality of government as any issue. Elections are now being won by candidates with the most efficient fund-raisers, a worsening condition that eventually will destroy public confidence in the ballot box. For the doubters among us, check any poll of public confidence in today's political leaders.

The other unresolved question -- special interest influence -- has less to do with who writes the laws and programs and priorities of our state than how they are written. The agendas of those who pay taxes and those who write the tax laws are entirely different, and until we recognize this difference, special interests will control the quality of public governance.

Listen closely and you can hear the orchestra tuning up for the final number. It's a new score entitled "Sixteen Billion and Counting." It was composed by five and a half-million Missourians.

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