NOTHING LAME ABOUT THIS LAME DUCK

Speaking with the kind of conviction that friends have never mistaken for political pap, John Ashcroft says he will make his final year in the executive office a time of progress and achievement. If he makes good on his pledge he will defy the rules of politics, which hold that a governor's last year in office is one filled with frustration and inertia.

Visiting several hours in an off-the-record meeting with a handful of journalists following his final state of the state address to the General Assembly, Gov. Ashcroft outlined his plans for 1992 in the same way he formerly outlined the state's cases he argued in court as attorney general. It was a methodical, well thought out agenda, just as Ashcroft has planned his nearly two decades of public service, starting first as an appointed state auditor, then eight years as Missouri's official lawyer and now beginning his 8th year as chief executive.

The governor was in good form only an hour after his address to the joint session. He had good reason. The speech an~d its call for bipartisan support and action had been well received: Democrats more often than not joined in Republican applause as the governor ticked off his goals for the next 12 months. He had even won opposition support when he deftly handled the unexpected "~Act Up-Fight AIDS" spectators in the gallery who interrupted his speech five times. Ashcroft reminded his audience of the First Amendment's right of free speech, even if it fails to mention hecklers seeking media attention.

Speaking later about the hecklers, the go~vernor displayed a sense of humor his critics have seldom acknowledged. Noting he wasn't overly surprised when the first hecklers began shouting, Ashcroft explained by saying he belonged to a church where it was not unusual for members to stand up and suddenly address their fellow parishioners. For a governor who takes his religion seriously, it was an unexpected remark, but typical of his ability to handle adversity with an assurance not always found among those in public service.

The defeat of Proposition B, which he had not only supported but helped write, was a personal loss to Ashcroft. He had sought to revise the way the state managed its public education systems and the way these systems managed their own agendas, but it was rejected by a margin that left little room for optimism. Despite this, he hopes to institute some of these proposed changes through legislation in this session, even if he refuses to discuss the possibility of providing more state revenue. He is obviously prepared to watch an unknown number of local school districts balance on the precipice of fiscal insolvency, which he views as the price Missouri must pay for the failure of Prop B. Satisfied with half a loaf, he will make structural changes, leaving it to those who follow to provide financial relief. He has no problem with this, for his philosophy accepts the bad with the good, the absence of full solution in exchange for partial resolution.

John Ashcroft's final-year agenda is larger, more extensive than the first-year goals of some of his predecessors. His first job will be to convince legislators of the need to enact, with no time to spare, an increase in the state gasoline tax that will allow Missouri to receive its full share under new federal highway legislation. He is asking lawmakers to approve the increase without going to a vote of the people because he wants to create jobs this spring and not months later.

Asking legislators to institute the tax increase without voter confirmation is not an easy job, particularly in an election year. But Ashcroft has much more on his plate for 1992.

He wants to broaden health insurance availability through a state financing pool, reform welfare through programs designed to end dependency, restructure services Missouri provides its children, measure educational performance for both local schools and state colleges and universities, revise the school foundation formula, increase the state's enforcement weapons against drug abuse and expand the Medicaid system that provides health care for the poor. It is a list of goals that even his detractors cannot fault, even if they wish he might increase their number and their funding. Ashcroft argues this is not the time to take more in the way of taxes from citizens facing the uncertainties of hard economic times. ~And in the end, we suspect he will win the argument.

Missourians will remember this governor for his fiscal conservatism, yet strangely enough, in his two terms he has presided over a doubling of state expenditures. Part can be traced to a natural growth of state and federal revenue, and part to Ashcroft's willingness to support new programs and their higher costs when the chips were down.

This governor has never sought to dominate the legislative process, a tactic that has brought criticism from those who would be the first to protest if he tried. ~As governor, John ~Ashcroft has not always succeeded, but it is of greater importance to Missourians that he has failed so seldom. May he so continue in his remaining days in office.

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