`REFORM' RUNS AMOK IN MISSOURI

"Don't reform anymore. It is not an improvement." Mark Twain, 1896

It has been almost a century since Missouri's favorite social critic spoke those words. But if the last two years are any guide, the General Assembly and the governor would do well to heed them.

Never has a word been so abused as "reform" when used in the legislative venacular of Governor Mel Carnahan and the Legislature. To hear the governor and lawmakers tell it, you would believe we are just reforming everything in sight.

That may be our biggest problem. To paraphrase President Franklin Roosevelt, "We have nothing to fear but reform itself."

In his first year as the state's chief executive, Governor Carnahan took credit for "education reform." This included the adoption of a fuzzy concept called "outcome-based education" which discourages individual achievement and fosters mediocrity. Governor Carnahan said this was a benefit he fought for while under the threatening gavel of a circuit court judge. That is his explanation for why we pay dearly for "reform". Governor Carnahan and the Democrat-dominated General Assembly imposed the largest tax increase in state history without a vote of the people as the price of "education reform."

If "less is more," then that's exactly what this reform has achieved -- less of an educational standard for much more tax money.

Governor Carnahan also claimed last year to have achieved "workers compensation reform." Employers across Missouri were relieved to hear that the General Assembly had finally done something to keep skyrocketing costs down and businesses and jobs in our state. What has been the result of last year's "reform"? Workers comp rates have escalated 20 to 50 percent in one year for hundreds of employers, and many cost-inhibiting mechanisms in the legislation have gone unimplemented. When truly substantive workers comp relief was offered in bi-partisan legislation this year, the entire proposal was shelved.

The governor and the General Assembly vowed to give us more "reform" this year. Like castor oil dispensed upon children, we were told it would be good for us. This year's topics were welfare and health care.

The Legislature has approved a bill praised as "welfare reform." In essence, the legislation creates individualized "self-sufficiency pacts" between welfare families and the state to become employed or gain employment assistance over a two to four year period. Unfortunately, even if the proposal has some merit, the program is anticipated to affect only 2,500 of the 90,000 current welfare families in Missouri, and will add a new layer of welfare bureaucracy to state government. The final legislative analysis estimates that only about 480 families will actually get off welfare in the next two years. While we may have tinkered around the edges of the problem of welfare dependency, the measure cannot masquerade as "reform" without making hard decisions and demanding people take responsibility for their own lives.

Lawmakers finally said "enough" when Governor Carnahan attempted to ram through an ill-conceived and hastily-drawn plan labeled "health care reform." Like many of the proposals about this politically-charged issue, the promises for harm were greater than any potential benefits. The governor's plan would have made insurance more expensive and priced healthy, young people out of the market. The measure was also likely to send insurance carriers fleeing Missouri because of unnecessary government intervention. Luckily, Missouri lawmakers from both parties recognized the charade in time to kill the bill.

Why does it matter whether the governor or any other politician call their proposals "reform"? Two important reasons come to mind. First, in an era of political correctness, politicians pander to the public's earnest desire to make significant changes in a government most believe is weighed down by bureaucracy, taxes, ineffective programs, and an overall lack of individual responsibility. Politicians know that by calling their proposals "reform measures," they can take advantage of the public's pent-up frustration to overhaul the system. Unfortunately, the outcome is that a lot of bad legislation disguised as "reform" gets approved because of slick public relations and politicians' fear of reprisal if they don't give the voters something.

The most serious ramification, however, will occur when the reform illusion of this political magic show is revealed. When taxpayers realize our educational system is more expensive but not improved, when employers realize their costs aren't stabilized or reduced, when the welfare system lingers or grows with a higher pricetag, when health care changes result in a mere redistribution of pain, then the public will cry "We've been hoodwinked!" The mass cynicism about our political system in this country will deepen. Like the boy crying "wolf," no one will be able to lead, because the people will no longer believe the words.

Unless we truly intend to give the public substantive, meaningful changes that redirect time-worn policies and programs, I suggest we strike the term "reform" from the lexicon of political populism. Ban it before it becomes hollow forever.

Perhaps Governor Carnahan and all legislators should remember Mark Twain's conundrum, "Every time I reform in one direction, I go overboard in another. "

Francis E. Flotron, Jr., R-St. Louis, is Minority Floor Leader of the Missouri Senate.