Some ballot issues are baffling to plain old hillbillies

In a little while we'll be heading to our polling places and making decisions that we all have to live with, even those who don't vote.

One issue is a statewide sales tax to pay for highways. Another has something to do with farming. We're being asked to add something to our state constitution called the Right to Farm Amendment.

You probably thought Missourians already had a right to farm, just like folks in Kansas and Ohio and Tennessee and all the other states. Well, you're right. There is, as far as I can tell, no effort being made to keep you from "farming." But if a threat to farming ever popped up, Missouri would be ready, if voters pass this amendment.

It seems to me something else may be at stake with this Right to Farm business. I'm just a hillbilly from the Ozarks over yonder, so please excuse my limited understanding of all this. But some folks tell me a lot of money is being spent by the pro-Right to Farm gang, not because their farming rights are in peril, but because they want to operate puppy mills with as few regulations as possible.

I don't know about you, but it seems to me maybe this ballot item ought to be called the Right to Run a Puppy Mill Amendment. Then we'd know what we're really voting on.

That's a pretty common tactic for a lot of the statewide ballot measures. Give them a name that masks what they are really attempting to accomplish. It just makes sense. If you have to vote on a Right to Farm proposal, who's going to say they're against farming? But if you have to vote on a Right to Run a Puppy Mill proposal, you might say, whoa, am I really in favor of puppy mills?

The difference between puppy mills and well-run dog-breeding kennels is, perhaps, a fine line. It would be like my mother's explanation of the difference between "naked" and "nekkid": It all comes down to what you plan to do when you have no clothes on.

The sales tax for transportation is a bit more straightforward. Almost anyone who has a driver's license knows Missouri's highways are in need of costly upgrades and maintenance.

There's a reason this ballot proposal isn't called a Highway Sales Tax Plan. Sure, a lot of highway work would be covered. But the tax revenue also would be used for airports and municipal transit systems.

See, when you put something like this on the ballot, you have to be practical about appealing to voters. Most voters in Missouri live in the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas. City folks don't give a hang about a bridge over Ramsey Creek that cuts off miles of out-of-the way travel. But promise them a light-rail system or a longer airport runway and you've got their attention.

The problem I see with the proposed sales tax is just that. It's a sales tax. That means anyone who purchases anything subject to the tax will pay for these transportation upgrades.

Again, being a hillbilly, I'm wondering if the folks who buy stuff in Missouri should be footing this bill. Wouldn't it make more sense for highway users to pay for this? The simplest way to accomplish this would be to raise the state tax on fuel. Missouri currently has one of the lowest fuel taxes in the country, and it hasn't been raised in years.

But guess who has one of the most powerful lobbies in Jefferson City. Big Trucking. The trucking industry -- vital to our state and national economy -- doesn't want to pay higher fuel taxes.

The Missouri Legislature doesn't have the guts to turn down Big Trucking support. So the legislature will let you decide if you want to raise the sales tax on stuff you buy in the state to pay for highway improvements AND a lot of other goodies designed to get support from St. Louis and Kansas City.

That's the way it works, folks.

Highway officials and elected officials will say we don't have a choice. Either we pass this transportation sales tax or we live with the consequences. Failure to pass this sales tax, they say, would have dire results.

That's kind of like what we heard from Cape Girardeau officials several years ago when we were told we had to pass funding for a new sewage-treatment plant or face monthly sewer charges higher than a car payment -- even though the city knew it had to do something about sewage treatment long before we voted on water parks and a lot of other goodies.

If the transportation sales-tax proposal coming up fails, it's not the end of the world. The legislature can do its job and make a rational and fair decision on how much Missouri's fuel tax should be raised.

This is one hillbilly who will be thinking long and hard about the Right to Farm and the transportation sales tax issues on the ballot.

And I know there are a lot of voters educated in a one-room schoolhouse who will be asking many of the same questions.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.