STADIUM PROPOSALS RAISE FISCAL CONCERNS

The Missouri General Assembly this year has been asked to help fund construction of two athletic stadiums and help maintain a third in a year that Gov. Bob Holden has called the tightest budget year in recent memory.

Nevertheless before the Legislature are these proposals:

* At St. Louis, the Cardinals want to use state sales tax generated by Busch Stadium to help fund a new $370 million ballpark. In conjunction with the stadium, a privately developed $380 million BallPark Village would, if successful, generate up to $40 million annually in tax revenue for the state, double the $19 million the same area now generates, proponents say. As a way to repay bonds for the stadium, the state would let the Greater St. Louis Sports Authority keep all sales-tax revenue generated within the stadium. The Cardinals' owners would put up $100 million.

* At Columbia, a donor has put $25 million on the table for a new basketball arena at the University of Missouri. The benefactor wants a commitment from the Legislature, which is being asked to issue and pay for $35 million in bonds for the $75 million arena.

* At Kansas City, Jackson County officials want some help keeping up the Truman Sports Complex. They are asking lawmakers to let them keep $3.6 million of the sales tax generated at the complex each year to help meet a shortfall needed to maintain Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums, homes of the Kansas City Royals and Kansas City Chiefs.

Proponents of the St. Louis proposal stress the tax-generating benefits of a new stadium and adjacent BallPark Village. The same is being said of a new basketball arena on the basis it would help keep the University of Missouri basketball team from slipping into the kind of lethargy that overtook the football program, and keep fans coming to Columbia. And Kansas City could ill-afford to lose its two professional teams.

The arguments in favor of economic-benefits and the generation of new taxes are good ones, but other concerns are greater.

As far as the St. Louis proposal is concerned, the $100 million the team would pay for the new stadium is not nearly enough toward a $370 million stadium project -- particularly is the owners get the money through naming rights. The Legislature shouldn't even consider it until owners offer substantially more. And there is no guarantee that the BallPark Village would produce the kind of new tax revenue proponents say it would, because many businesses already generating taxes might simply move from other locations into the new village.

But of foremost concern is the fiscal stability of Missouri government. While money the state put into these projects might be returned in the way of additional tax revenue, Missouri would miss out on millions of dollars for years to come from the St. Louis and Kansas City plans. That would divert money when the state says money is tight.