After Monday off following the Easter holiday, we will return to legislative duties Tuesday for the final, five-week sprint to adjournment. Among the first items on our plate upon return will be Senate Bill 731, the tax-cut measure. We took up SB 731 for a contentious afternoon of debate this past week before laying it aside without disposing of even the first proposed amendment.

As currently written by the Ways and Means Committee, here are the key provisions of SB 731:

* Dependency exemption deduction:

Increases the dependency deduction from $400 to $800. The fact that the current amount was established in 1944 and hasn't been touched since is, in my judgment, a scandal. In inflation-adjusted, 1944 dollars, this item should be worth $3,800 today. If we Republicans have our way, this will be increased to at least $1,200.

* Tuition tax deduction:

Allows an income-tax deduction for parents with children in private and parochial schools, grades 9-12, for "tuition, attendance fees, school supplies and transportation costs."

This tiny but enormously significant step toward parental freedom in education is the most controversial item in the bill. We supporters believe, based on the fight over this provision last year, that we have at least 19 votes in the 34-member Senate. The most unapologetically liberal member, state Sen. Ken Jacobs, D-Columbia, is fighting against this measure and to preserve the education finance monopoly in public education. It is time to move toward simple justice for all parents, time we recognize that parents with children in private schools are taxpaying citizens, too, and are entitled to some relief.

Even if we pass the tuition tax deduction in the Senate, however, this provision faces stiff opposition from a House speaker and from the governor. Win, lose or draw, though, the battle for parental freedom in education will continue this year, and next, and the year after that. It is vital for discouraged parents to realize, though, that we are making steady progress toward the North Star of parental freedom to choose schools.

* State child-care tax credit:

Allows a state income-tax credit for dependent care expenses equal to 50 percent of the federal child care tax credit (maximum federal credit is $720 for one dependent and $1,440 for two or more dependents). Those of us who don't want to penalize stay-at-home moms will fight to guarantee that this credit is available for them, as well as for households where both parents work outside the home.

* Charcoal producer tax credit:

Allows an income-tax credit equal to 50 percent of the purchase price of environmental control equipment for charcoal producers.

A host of smaller sales tax exemptions is also in the bill. You can check out this and other Senate legislation at the Missouri Senate Internet home page (www.Senate.state.mo.us./).

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The ban on partial-birth abortions won final approval in the House of Representatives this past week. Passage came by the overwhelming margin of 131-26. This is four votes more than my bill banning the same procedure received last year, before Gov. Mel Carnahan wrote a truly shameful chapter in Missouri history by vetoing it. A veto-proof, two-thirds margin is 109 votes in the 163-member House. With five weeks to go in the legislative session that ends May 15, the bill now comes to the Senate where, as was true last year, we supporters have votes to spare.

Is another dramatic September veto override confrontation in the making? If so, one man -- and one man alone -- will have caused it.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.