YOU SHOULD KNOW WHO WILL CONTROL YOUR LIFE

KENNETT, MO. -- I think it's safe to say that either Bob Holden or Jim Talent will be our next governor, and it's probably even safer to state that on Wednesday morning, Nov. 8, some 5.4 million of us Missourians will awaken with the same questions:

"What is our next governor really like, and what does he really intend to accomplish?"

Between now and the November election, we're not going to get many satisfactory answers to either of these two questions. Even if we happen to encounter one or both of the candidates between now and the general election, the few minutes we may spend visiting with either or both will hardly reveal what kind of an administration we'll have in Jefferson City starting next January.

If your response to this problem is that it's no big deal, think again. No elected official, whether president of the United States or the sheriff of your county has more influence on how you will fare for the next four years than our state's chief executive. After all, state government has much more effect on how you lead your daily life than any other jurisdiction because it impacts on virtually everything you do in public, and on many events in your private life.

Consider that this multibillion-dollar enterprise regulates not only your conduct once you leave your home and drive your car, but whether your children receive the kind of education that will prepare them for the future. The state has an increasingly invasive control over the medical services that are available to you and your family. It is the primary source of all mental health care in Missouri, whether your problem is a personality disorder or drug addiction.

The state regulates your business and takes a sizable chunk of any profit you're fortunate enough to make. It dictates the standards of safety in your home, your business and in your shopping mall. It sets the tax rates for almost every retail purchase you make, every gallon of gasoline you purchase and even oversees the rates you pay for such services as insurance, health care, investments and even how much you divvy up for that last speeding ticket.

Even if you don't venture far from home, the state not only controls the highways you use but is responsible for building them as well. The quality of its transportation system depends on whether the trucks that bring the food you buy at the supermarket arrive on time. It even checks the scales at the meat and produce counters to determine whether you're getting full value, and it decides whether the food you buy meets the quality standards it has set for meat and other perishable foods.

The state operates the overriding law enforcement agencies that more or less dictate the law-and-order of your community, and whether the agency is the Highway Patrol or the State Fire Marshal or the National Guard it impacts on your daily life.

Generally unrecognized by the public at large is the influence the state has on family life. Dysfunctional families quickly come within the purview of the Department of Social services, which has virtually unlimited power in deciding the fate of your children, even the power to remove them from your care, a power the state exercises every day of the year. Talk about influence!

In case you haven't recognized it, the state is the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to deciding the question of how your children are educated. From classroom rules to teacher certification to supplying huge portions of your local district's annual budget, the state not only call the tune -- it writes and prints and music, organizes the band and tells you when you may hear the concert. If the state defaults on its regular checks to your neighborhood school, your children will be hanging around the house a lot more than you even imagined.

And just in case you believe your child or children need a college education, the state offers you unbelievable opportunities at costs that simply aren't available from any other source. If the millions the state spends on operating a sizable network of colleges and universities were to stop, the ability to pay for the higher education of even one of your children would be dramatically restricted.

Whether you want information on the kind of insurance the salesman is offering you or need to verify that you were actually born or married or the day your grandfather died, or whether the way coming from the faucet is safe to drink or when you can go fishing or hunting or when and how yo vote or whether you're permitted to drive or drink alcoholic beverages or board a casino, the man to see is not the President of the United States or your friendly member of the U.S. Congress.

The "man" is the governor of Missouri, the guy in Jefferson City, the person whose name you may be able to spell but probably couldn't recognize if you met him tomorrow on Main Street.

Is the candidate you have decided to support qualified by experience and education? What are his views on any of the above subjects? Does he favor more or less government and, if so, what does he want to add or subtract from Missouri's menu of public services?

Missouri has been fortunate in having a few outstanding governors, a few more good governors and, unfortunately, some poor or indifferent chief executives. The latter group explains why Missouri is too often listed among the middling states in everything from median income to job opportunities to school test scores.

The candidate you support for governor doesn't count? Don't bet your future on it.

~Jack Stapleton is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.