GOVERNOR'S BUDGET TARGETS PRISONS; SPENDING PLAN UP 4%

The Missouri budget proposed by Gov. Mel Carnahan this week indicates a variety of trends that will likely have an impact on state spending for years to come. For example:

-- Outlays for cash welfare benefits are being cut slashed, but most of the savings is being shifted to programs geared at putting welfare recipients to work. This is costly, but the potential benefits are likely to outweigh the expense over the long run.

-- There is a $3.15 million item for a new area vocational-technical school building in Cape Girardeau in the proposed budget, but there is no funding for capital improvements at Southeast Missouri State University or state colleges. Funding for elementary and secondary education is being boosted by gambling receipts, but other capital outlays are being muscled out by the high cost of adding hundreds more beds for prison inmates.

-- The proposed budget calls for elimination of the state sales tax -- 3 percent -- on food. While the governor would have taxpayers believe this is the result of a good economy and prudent fiscal management, the fact is that the Hancock Amendment is forcing the state to either give taxpayers huge refunds or reduce state income to avoid triggering the refunds.

-- And there is a tuition tax break for students in the first two years of college.

The growth in spending proposed by the governor is nearly 4 percent above the current fiscal year, well over the rate of inflation.

While there are portions of the budget plan that look appealing, there is still room for concern about the continuous rapid growth in overall spending. Where is the push for restraint? Where are the efforts to find ways to reduce the tax burden on Missourians beyond those mandated by the Missouri Constitution?

More importantly, every taxpayers should watch carefully to see whether the plums offered by the governor stay in the budget pudding at the end of the current legislative session.