TWO PROPOSALS TO NOV. BALLOT

The initiative proposal to hike Missouri's minimum wage to the nation's highest, and to keep on ratcheting it up from there every year, has qualified for the November ballot. Voters should and, we believe will, overwhelmingly defeat it.

Another initiative to re-authorize the one-tenth cent sales tax for soil and water conservation has also qualified for the November ballot. Voters should, and we believe will, overwhelmingly adopt it.

Taking the last one first, readers will recall they have twice before approved this much-needed measure. Prior to its adoption in the early 1980s, Missouri was second in the nation in losing our precious topsoil. More than a decade later, substantial progress has been made in reversing this trend. This tax should be renewed.

As for the minimum wage proposal, it is a bad idea from a left-wing group that has little connection to reality. Small business people, for whom reality intrudes every hour of every day, know how to create jobs. They also know that this one is a job-killer and a threat to Missouri's economy.

It is opposed by most responsible leaders, including Gov. Mel Carnahan, who signed to petition to get it on the ballot. Last week we learned that were it to pass, it would cost state government $100 million and local governments millions more. Once the facts get out on this one -- and they're getting out -- it will sink like a rock.