Economic forecasters at the University of Missouri predict mostly moderate growth for the Show Me State economy in the coming year. Moderate growth is the watchword for personal incomes, employment growth, labor force, unemployment rate and new building permits. A growth in state labor force that outstrips job opportunities will mean that the near-record low unemployment rate of 4.2 percent in the first quarter of this year should drift slightly upward.

Forecasters say manufacturing employment should remain almost constant, with losses in durable goods manufacturing offset by gains in nondurable manufacturing industries. Services, construction, trade, finance, insurance and real estate will show the fastest growth over the next year, the MU economists say.

On the whole, the forecast is for more of the same that has long characterized Missouri's economy: Avoidance of the boom-bust cycle and wide, wild swings for which other sectors on both coasts are frequently noted. We can live with that.

But we can also live with a state government that looks at the future and worries about the impact of a steady growth economy on the taxes being paid by Missourians (see the editorial above).

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the relationship between the growth state officials brag about and the amount of taxes everyone else is paying.