REDUCE STATE JOBS AND CUT TAXES

In the fiscal year 1999 budget that will take effect July 1, state spending continues its steady growth. Each year since Gov. Mel Carnahan took office in 1993, state spending has grown by close to $1 billion. In his fiscal 1999 budget proposal announced in January, Carnahan proposed an increase in spending of $933 billion to nearly $15.9 billion, up from $14.9 billion in the current year. Governors propose, but lawmakers dispose. Our lawmakers raised the governor by another $26.4 million.

Added to state government this year will be 2,648 additional state employees, of which most, sadly, are in the rapidly expanding Missouri Department of Corrections. Total state employees now number 59,803, an all-time high. This includes more employees to administer the state's welfare programs at a time when welfare rolls are dropping due to enactment of long-overdue reforms.

All this is subject to final approval by the governor, who possesses the line-item veto power on the 16 appropriations bills that fund state government. To date the governor hasn't signed any, and he and his staff are no doubt reviewing all of them carefully with an eye toward each additional item lawmakers approved.

All this occurs against the backdrop of a booming state economy that has allowed the current administration and lawmakers to act like Santa Claus compared to their predecessors. In most previous years, there has been nothing like this year's $180 million-plus capital improvements measure. We would like to see far more tax relief than the relatively small measures of the last two years, grudgingly forced by Missouri's tax-limiting Hancock Amendment.

Next year, lawmakers will be working once again to comply with the constitutional mandate to balance the state budget. As they do this, lawmakers should redouble their efforts to reduce total state employment, especially in welfare, and look for broad-based tax relief for both business and individual taxpayers.