PROP B: SAY NO TO SELF-FUNDED VOTING

Missourians will vote Nov. 7 on something called Proposition B. It involves a large tax increase. It is easily one of the worst ballot propositions ever put before Show Me State voters.

Here is how Prop B would work. Politicians would get state money to run their campaigns, provided they met certain limited thresholds of legitimacy.

This new, open-ended entitlement for politicians -- using your tax money -- would be financed by an increased franchise tax on business. This obscure tax on businesses would see a 30-percent increase on small, medium and large businesses. This higher tax is estimated to generate $50 million in receipts every two-year election cycle. Any such tax would be a step toward making Missouri uncompetitive in attracting new businesses, and keeping old ones, in our state. This is money that can't be used to hire more workers, pay better salaries and secure better benefits for all workers.

Food stamps for politicians

Proposition B may be understood as food stamps for politicians. That is to say, Prop B would socialize our election campaigns, with every Missourian shoveling his or her tax money at politicians to finance their campaigns. That's right: You would fund the politicians' campaigns, whether you wanted to or not, including those with whom you violently disagree. Should Prop B pass, a passionately pro-life voter would be funding the campaign of the most staunchly pro-abortion extremist in the Legislature, and vice-versa.

As though this weren't enough to oppose Prop B, there's more. Consider that there are no real restrictions on the spending of the money. Politicians who aren't seriously challenged (a majority of incumbents, for instance) can't exactly line their pockets with the money, but they exercise wide latitude in disbursing their campaign funds.

Lavish meals and plenty to drink

They can, for instance, buy expensive dinners in the finest and most expensive restaurants, as long as the personnel present, and the subjects discussed, can be said to be political in nature. They can buy wine, beer and whiskey to entertain their friends, cronies and constituents. They can hire hotel and motel rooms as long as there is a political pretext for the travel. They can even purchase furniture for this or that home or vacation condominium, as one prominent ex-state lawmaker from the Bootheel did, so amazingly, just a few years back. (Other than having the embarrassing information published in the news media, he suffered no penalty, no sanction of any kind.)

In Massachusetts, a measure similar to Proposition B was passed but has never been implemented. We have had a version of this at the presidential level for 20 years through the income-tax checkoff, and participation rates are dropping. It has done little to limit the amounts of money that are deployed in national campaigns, and nothing at all to curb corruption. (See the Clinton-Gore campaign of 1996, the most financially corrupt in history.) Further, Prop B would increase the power and influence of candidates and others well-known in our state's large cities to the detriment of outstate candidates trying to become better-known in the huge urban markets.

There is little or no true, grassroots, bona fide in-state support for Prop B. The whole matter is being financed by out-of-state elitists who think they know better than we Missourians do how our elections should be run.

Missourians should go to the polls on Nov. 7 and give a resounding no to the out-of-state forces asking us to vote on Proposition B.