THERE'S NO HURRY TO SPEND THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT, ESPECIALLY IF SPENDING PROPOSAL ILL-ADVISED

If you listen to Gov. Mel Carnahan and read the liberal editorials at major Missouri newspapers, it was a huge failure of our state lawmakers, during the session just ended, to fail to pass a plan to spend the tobacco money that will be flowing in over 25 years. Bunk.

The truth is that outside a few powerful special interests who had their hearts set on this income stream, there was no clamor from the general public to pass any such plan. These special interests represented principally lots of hospitals and especially the research hospitals affiliated with leading universities in our two major urban areas.

Begin with the fact that any such proposal would have written designated spoending percentages 60 percent for health care, 15 percent for smoking-cessation programs and the like into the state Constitution. The need for doing any such thing, instead of allowing the money to flow in and lawmakers to deliberate on how to spend it in the ordinary course of annual budgeteering, was never demonstrated. Further, the state Supreme Court last month took a group of cases presenting many of the same issues as to who is entitled to a chunk of the funds. Finally, an impasse was reached between Gov. Carnahan -- the most pro-abortion governor in state history -- and the heavily pro-life majority in the Legislature. Lawmakers balked at passing any spending plan if this governor wouldn't agree to restrictions on using the money to promote abortions. "Abortion is the ultimate trump card arpounbd here," observed former Carnahan chief of staff (and now lobbyist for would-be tobacco-money spenders) Brad Ketcher, ruefully stating a fact of life in the Carnahan years.

Somehow, tomorrow and the day after and the day after that, we expect the sun to rise. Over the next year a gubernatorial campaign will be fought out, the high court will rule and a new bunch of lawmakers will be elected. This subject will wait till January for a new Legislature to address.