WHAT'S GOOD FOR ST. LOUIS ISN'T ALWAYS GOOD FOR MISSOURI

Outstate Missouri and the state's metropolitan areas continually find themselves at odds with one another about any number of topics. The most public object of contention currently deals with mass transit, a subject rural Missourians care little about but which their city kin address with passion. We willingly let the urban folks clutch this sentiment, as long as it doesn't cost everybody. It seems likely a tax proposal is on its way for funding of mass transit. Outstate voters would like a shot at such a ballot issue.

While sure bets are hard to come by with the General Assembly in session, it seems likely the legislature believes voter approval is a must for any mass transit tax. Last week, the Senate Transportation and Tourism Committee sent a measure to the floor of that chamber calling for a statewide vote to raise the Missouri sales tax one-tenth of a penny to upgrade public transportation. However, the bill's sponsor wasn't thrilled with this outcome; Sen. John Scott, a St. Louisan who grew up in the Bootheel (he was born in Charleston), wants the tax increase to go into effect without voters getting a crack at it.

The timing probably isn't right for Sen. Scott to get his way. Last year, the General Assembly voted $310 million in tax increases for public schools with asking voters for their input. And this year, every member of the Missouri House and half the senators are up for election. Talk about being politically incorrect, try bypassing the voters on a tax increase during an election year.

However, the visibility of mass transit programs is being raised in a big way at the Capitol. Gov. Mel Carnahan (who also supports a statewide vote) called in his State of the State address for development of a transportation plan that would offer something for all Missourians. Long-time mass transit advocates, such as Rep. Karen McCarthy of Kansas City, are beginning to be encouraged by the attention shown to the issue in Jefferson City. Further, St. Louis lawmakers are pointing to the popularity of that city's light-rail system, MetroLink, opened last summer and carrying 24,000 passengers a day, far above expectations.

What outstate Missourians must be wary of, though, is MetroLink's capacity for gobbling public revenues. Having not been in service a year, the mass transit system has a $10 million operating shortfall; we are left to speculate what the deficit would be were the trains not so popular. So, if a catalyst for raising revenues for mass transit is MetroLink, and rural Missourians are almost universally excluded from the possible benefits of the light-rail system, application of a tax increase without a statewide vote seems specious.

Sen. Scott says that "what's good for St. Louis is good for Missouri." His Senate colleague, Danny Staples, an Eminence resident and self-proclaimed "poor dumb country boy," doesn't necessarily buy that, and neither should Missourians. Sen. Staples chairs the committee that sent the mass transit measure to the Senate floor and says the provision for a statewide vote will remain intact. We side with the senator from Shannon County. If the mass transit advocates have a plan worth selling, let them sell it to the whole state, not just in the hallways and offices of the Capitol.