KINDER'S COMMENTARY: EFFORTS MADE ON TAX-LIMIT MEASURE

On Tuesday (May 9) of the last week of this year's legislative session that concluded last Friday, the Missouri Senate worked a full day and then some. After morning and afternoon sessions, we returned at 8 p.m. for a night session to take up the proposed tax limitation constitutional amendment. The amendment before us requires a vote of the people whenever state government increases taxes by $50 million or one percent of state revenues, whichever is lesser. In floor debate a few days earlier, the Senate had defeated a Republican-sponsored amendment to reduce the trigger for a public vote to $35 million.

Upon taking up the measure, I was first to offer a proposed amendment. Mine was designed to make the taxing authorities of our state more taxpayer-friendly. It reads, in pertinent part:

"... all such taxes are to be strictly construed against the state and in favor of the taxpayer, and no burden of proof shall be placed upon any taxpayer of this state in a proceeding involving taxes. ..."

My amendment failed on a party-line vote of 14-18. One Republican member was absent due to the death of his mother, and all other GOPers voted with me.

Next up was freshman GOP Sen. Morris Westfall of Polk County near Springfield. He offered the following amendment:

"... no political subdivision shall be required by the state to levy or increase a tax, license or fee as a condition either to continue its corporate status or to receive new, existing or an increased level of state funding, or as a condition to meet any other requirement which itself is a condition to receive new, existing or an increased level of state funding."

This amendment would have prevented the state from ever doing again what it commanded local schools districts to do under Senate Bill 380: to raise their local property tax levies or be abolished. It also failed, on a mostly party-line vote, 12-19.

Next up was Sen. Emory Melton, the chamber's senior Republican from Cassville near Branson, who offered an amendment that would have abolished tax credits as an economic development tool. Believing that tax credits, properly used, can be important incentives, I joined a few other Republicans in opposing this amendment. It lost 11-22.

Next up was the youngest senator in the chamber, 31-year-old Republican Sam Graves of Tarkio in far northwest Missouri. His amendment would have sent to the voters any increase in sales or income taxes, no matter what the size. On yet another mostly party-line vote, this one failed 12-20.

Next up was Sen. Steve Ehlmann, the Republican from St. Charles. He offered an amendment that would have placed the proposal before voters at the municipal and school elections to be held next April. This is the first statewide election opportunity short of calling an intervening special election for the purpose, which would be costly. Our thinking in supporting the earliest opportunity for the people to adopt this measure is that if it's as good as the governor says, why wait? When your doctor tells you to go on a diet, he doesn't say begin 18 months from now. He wants you to start right away. Other alternatives in the governor's discretion are at the August 1996 primary or the November 1996 general election. In another mostly party-line vote, Sen. Ehlmann's amendment lost 15-18.

Next up was Sen. David Klarich, Republican from Ballwin, who offered the following amendment:

"This section shall be effective for all legislation approved in the 87th General Assembly, first regular session, and all subsequent sessions."

This was a real doozy. Currently we are in the 88th General Assembly. The 87th was my first two-year session, which convened in January 1993 and which, at the behest of Gov. Mel Carnahan, passed Senate Bill 380. Thus the Klarich amendment would have put SB 380's huge tax hike to a public vote. Accordingly, it lost on another mostly party-line vote of 12-16.

Finally, Republican Sen. Larry Rohrbach of California, in central Missouri, offered the following amendment:

"No expenditures of public funds shall be made by any officer, employee or agent of the state or any political subdivision to advocate, support or oppose any ballot measure subject to this article. This section shall not be construed to prohibit any elected official from taking a public position on any ballot measure. An expenditure by an elected official within the normal and course of his duties shall not be a violation of this section."

Sen. Rohrbach's amendment would have prevented much of the nonsense that state government officials committed during last year's campaign on Amendment 7 (Hancock II). It failed on a party-line vote of 14-18.

Gov. Carnahan opposed every one of our amendments. After all amendments were debated and disposed of, past 12:30 a.m. at the end of a 17-hour day, the full Senate adopted the tax limit measure and sent it to the people by a vote of 30-2, with only two liberal Democrats voting in the negative.

(P.S. Before adjourning, we passed the bill making the mule the official state animal, which consumed approximately 3 minutes. There is something to be said for wearing folks out before you get to the tough ones.)

Peter Kinder is associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.