CARNAHAN SAYS STATE FUNDS HEADED TO WEED & SEED

SIKESTON -- Sikeston will receive more than $18,000 in state funds for its Weed & Seed program, Gov. Mel Carnahan announced during a visit Thursday.

Operation Weed & Seed, conducted through the U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis, was introduced in Sikeston about a year ago. It was a response to the city's out-of-control drug problem and the resulting violence.

The Department of Social Services will issue an $18,000 grant to pay a Weed & Seed director's salary for one year. The Department of Public Safety will give money to the city's community-oriented policing program.

And in the near future, the Department of Economic Development will work with local employers, providing incentives for businesses to hire the unemployed.

Twenty-four people have been arrested and 16 sentenced to prison under the weeding part of program. Now leaders want to seed in social programs.

While in Sikeston, Carnahan fielded questions from a Southeast Missourian reporter about other issues.

He was asked why, after he made tax cuts a prominent theme in his state of the state address, no tax cuts were passed during the legislative session.

Carnahan said: "We have a closely divided legislature, and the Republicans didn't want to give a Democratic governor a seeming victory on the tax issue. And there were so many ideas on how to cut taxes -- I say the issue was loved to death.

"We could not get together on the last day of the session, and we failed to give the people a faster, more efficient, more broadly distributed cut in the tax. I'm very disappointed."

Carnahan was asked why he is allowing the Department of Revenue to seek interest from cities and counties that saved their unconstitutional use-tax money.

He replied: "I helped pass legislation so that each local jurisdiction that wants the tax reimposed can put it on the August ballot. And there are lawsuits filed to test if the money has to be refunded. It isn't over yet.

The governor was asked if he thinks $314 million over three years is a good payoff to get out of the Kansas City desegregation issue. He was asked if he thinks attorneys for the Kansas City students will sign off on the proposed agreement.

Said Carnahan: "That amount is very close to the annual desegregation expenditures for three years. The important part is that in three years the state is out. That's what's different about it.

"I think (the attorneys) should go along with the agreement. It's good for the children, education and the very state of Missouri. If they don't, that's why there are courts.

"It is an enormous breakthrough to ask the court for this relief, and it's the right thing to do. It is up to Kansas City to plan how to educate the children of that school district. It should be the parents and the educators who make decisions, just like in Cape Girardeau, Sikeston or my hometown of Rolla."