SCHOOL FUNDING BILL BURSTING WITH SURPRISES FOR ALL OF US

So the politicians got together in Jefferson City this year and decided your taxes should go up. And what of that pesky vote of the people, solemnly promised us just last fall when, in the heat of a gubernatorial campaign, there was an electorate to be wooed?

Forget it.

Big Media in this state, ever a cheerleader for Big Government and higher taxes, is ecstatic, exhausting all superlatives, literally unable to contain themselves. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Kansas City Star and many other newspapers are lauding the legislature for demonstrating uncommon "courage" and "wisdom." The Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President Pro Tem are falling all over themselves in an orgy of self-congratulation. Across the state, education officials, by and large, are joining in the celebration. All these players agree: This year's legislative session was simply the most productive ever, one that saw all kinds of wonderful legislation passed into law.

Excuse me if I must rain on this parade. I will discuss other legislative enactments in columns to follow this week. Some, in my judgment, are praiseworthy and bring credit to the Speaker and President Pro Tem. Today we must speak of schools and methods of funding them in Senate Bill 380, the education funding package to reform the foundation formula. That's the formula by which the state distributes state monies to 538 local school districts.

Ever hear of the old wisdom expressed in the phrase, "Beware of what you pray for, 'cause you just might get it ..."? The reigning euphoria among the Governor, the Speaker, the President Pro Tem, their staffs, constituencies and Amen Corners, could easily give way to rueful reflections on that theme.

For the record, I voted No on final passage. I believed in a public vote, and fought unsuccessfully for such a referendum before we enacted one of the largest tax increases in the history of Missouri.

I further believe the legislative majority produced an unconstitutional bill in SB 380, and that courts will so hold. The whole matter was handled hastily and without waiting for the Missouri Supreme Court to rule on what a single circuit judge had said about the formula earlier this year.

The foundation formula issue is so complex that success in writing a new formula had eluded the General Assembly for 16 years under three governors of both parties. Anyone, such as yours truly, who suggested we take more time with this extremely complex bundle of issues had his or her concerns blithely waived aside. Haste was the order of the day, and the devil take the hindmost.

I continually argued that a special legislative session was warranted on so important a subject, the better to give school funding the singular attention it deserved. In my weekend visits with constituents in all parts of the 27th district, I found no one who disagreed.

The facts are these. When Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder struck down the current formula on January 15 (a ruling all observers expected), Gov. Mel Carnahan went to the special House-Senate task force that had been meeting on the formula for a couple of months. "It'll take a full year for us to write a new formula," the bipartisan group of legislators told the chief executive.

"Nothing doing," replied the governor. "I need you to do it in two months. We've got to have it this session."

The result was SB 380, which we senators got toward the end of March. Then, more weeks passed with no action. On April 8, the final day of the session's 14th week (we began on January 6), Gov. Carnahan addressed a joint session of the House and Senate and laid before us a $415 million package of tax hikes to fund the new formula. There were just five weeks remaining in the session before the May 14 adjournment, and a million other issues were hanging fire.

It was another couple of weeks before Gov. Carnahan's tax proposal was reduced to an actual legislative proposal in the form of a bill for hearings, study and debate. Now, just three weeks remained.

There was no time to gather considered public reaction to the proposals floating around. This was part of the skillful design: Just hurry up and do it, before the people awakened to what was happening.

Recall that just seven months ago, we were promised a $200 million tax increase for education, with a vote of the people. Today, allegedly because of a judge's ruling, the politicians have decided you're in for a $315 million tax hike and no vote of the people.

SB 380 is constitutionally suspect on a number of grounds. A constitutional challenge is being prepared, even before the Governor signs the bill into law. That lawsuit should be filed in a matter of weeks, if not days. State Auditor Margaret Kelly will speak out Monday morning, expressing her opinion that this funding package triggers the Hancock Amendment's requirement of a statewide public vote.

You haven't heard the last of this one.

Coming in Tuesday's edition:

A summary of key parts of SB 380, together with problems backers face in selling the whole scheme to a skeptical public still unaware of what's been done to them. Local property tax levies are going up in 291 school districts, without a vote of the people. Remember Proposition C, back in 1982? Are Missourians being betrayed on a decade-old compact they made with educators and lawmakers?