MANAGING MISSOURI

Financial World magazine reported recently some welcome news for Missourians: In the fifth annual ranking of how states handle their business affairs, Missouri ranked third, behind Utah and Virginia. "Missouri has always been a state that plans for what it does and then keeps a careful eye on what it has done," said Katherine Barrett, a contributing editor of Financial World. She attributed Missouri's high ranking less to which party is in power than to enduring policies of prudent management. When former Republican Gov. (now U.S. senator) John Ashcroft left office in 1993, he touted the 1992 ranking, then as now, third among the states.

States were graded in three areas: financial management, managing for results and how infrastructure was maintained. In the first category, the magazine rated Missouri A-minus, in the second, A and in the third, a B-minus. The magazine noted that Missouri wins the highest possible approval rating for the soundness of its bonds, one of five states in this category.

Financial World, founded in 1902, is the nation's oldest business magazine and stresses the non-partisan nature of its recommendations. Missourians will want to see this record continued and even strengthened.