SESSION COULD GET HUNT UP OVER PRESCRIPTIONS

Gov. Bob Holden has called a special session of the Missouri Legislature to begin Sept. 5. The agenda is limited to three topics, but how long it takes to reach agreement on those agenda items is now in the hands of legislators. The governor hopes the deliberations will only take a week. The session is limited to 60 days by the Missouri Constitution.

Until Holden announced the session last week, he had insisted that only consensus items would be included. But it appears the session could be contentious anyway.

As expected, the governor included on the agenda a prescription-drug plan for the state's elderly residents. A tax-credit program cost taxpayers more than $85 million in the last fiscal year after Department of Revenue officials took it upon themselves to give a refund to any senior citizen who paid state income taxes the year before. The refund was intended to offset the burden of paying for costly prescription drugs, but in many cases elderly taxpayers received refunds even though they had incurred no drug expenses.

This year's legislative session struggled to come up with a better -- and less costly -- prescription plan for senior citizens. That effort was unsuccessful. Holden immediately announced he would call the special session to tackle that issue. So far, no clear alternative has emerged.

But the governor was reluctant to add other issues, and there were plenty of suggestions. Holden didn't want an unnecessarily long special session, which is expected to cost about $85,000 a week. So he rebuffed most ideas. Indeed, nearly all of the suggestions were bills that either should have been taken care of in the regular session or could easily wait until next year's session starts in January.

Two more items, however, made it onto the special session's agenda, and they deserve the extra attention.

One is a bill to make the federal tax refunds being mailed out to the state's taxpayers exempt from state income taxes. Ordinarily, federal refunds are treated as taxable income. The cost to taxpayers would have been up to $18 for single taxpayers and up to $36 for married couples. It wasn't the amount so much as the symbolism of the state taking a bite out of those refund checks. There is likely to be little opposition to making the refunds tax exempt, even though the cost to the state is estimated at $29 million -- in a budget year that has created quite a few budget constraints.

The last item on the special session's agenda is to repair a bill that was supposed to help the state's livestock producers get the best prices from packing companies. Instead, the law all but wiped out that market for farmers, who are desperate for sales opportunities at the highest possible prices. That legislation also is expected to pass quickly.