MUCH WORK REMAINS TO BE DONE IN FINAL DAYS OF SESSION

Lawmakers will return to Jefferson City tomorrow to begin the final two weeks of the legislative session that ends with adjournment for the year on Friday, May 16. As is usual at this point, most of the major issues are yet to be determined, with action building toward a last-week climax.

First among their constitutional duties is passage of a state budget. This $14 billion measure is found in one dozen House bills funding the various departments of state government, plus a capital improvements bill funding long-term projects. In the latter will be found, we hope, funding for the state's half-share of the new Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School. This funding was endorsed by the state board of education last fall and then included in Gov. Mel Carnahan's proposed state budget back in January. A measure of this funding was in the House version, while the full, $3.15 million was in the Senate version. The difference will be worked out in a House-Senate conference committee this week.

A host of other issues confront lawmakers. A ban on partial-birth abortions passed the Senate with overwhelming, bipartisan support and awaits House action. That action should come without delay. If it doesn't, clear responsibility will rest with a House leadership that still has plenty of time to address this measure. A huge managed care reform bill passed the House overwhelmingly and will be taken up this week on the Senate floor. This page has previously expressed concern about the unknowable costs of this well-intentioned measure, pointing out that even proponents admit that they don't know its price tag. Insurance industry spokesmen have expressed alarm that certain amendments added in the Senate committee could wreak havoc in the state's health-insurance marketplace.

Similar provisions in a Kentucky law passed a couple of years ago have driven every insurance company except one out of that state. At an absolute minimum, these provisions must come out or the measure should be defeated.

Then there are tax cuts. Gov. Carnahan proposed and the House passed a simple bill slashing three cents off the state sales tax on food. In the Senate, a number of amendments added further tax breaks to the bill. In historic Senate action Thursday, a majority of senators voted to add a tax deduction for parents of children who attend private schools. This issue has festered for years with barely a committee hearing, still less a floor vote in the full chamber. At a modest $4 million in foregone state revenue, the Senate's action in endorsing modest help for these hard-pressed parents is truly "a baby step," in the words of Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, but it is nonetheless crucial for the message it sends. If this provision can be retained in the House-Senate conference, these parents will know that a measure of help is on the way.

Scores of other issues await final action. The next two weeks promise plenty of action in these last, hectic days.