TODAY'S A BIG DAY FOR OUR FUTURE IN THE MISSOURI HOUSE

Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission director Wayne Muri offered an interesting comment this past week on the cost of not passing the proposed six-cent fuel tax increase currently before the Missouri legislature. Muri is a nationally respected figure in highway and transportation circles. He forecasts that beginning this Saturday, there will be 33 highway construction jobs lost each and every day that the legislature delays action on this investment in our state's future. Statewide, 7800 jobs are on the line with this bill jobs that are available this construction season to improve roads, bridges and highways all over Missouri.

What will the legislature say? I think Governor John Ashcroft is right when he said Monday in response to the question, won't there be a political cost to be paid in this fall's elections for politicians' backing of a tax increase? The governor responded that the politicians who will have some explaining to do are the ones who vote against providing Missouri's share of the funds necessary to match more federal dollars coming our way to make these jobs a reality this year.

Our payoffs, in enhanced safety, in lives saved and in improved access, will be real and prompt. We'll start with the building of Nash Road from I-55 east into the Port Authority, which can get under way this year if we get timely legislative action. (Incidentally, a second outlet to the interstate will be the best thing that ever happened to Scott City.) When Nash Road is committed, just watch our regional port blossom with activity in fulfillment of its long-awaited promise. Highway 60, four-laned all the way from Sikeston to Springfield, will surely cut valuable time off that five-hour trip. Further highway improvements will cut time from the current, four-hour trip to Jefferson City and Columbia in mid-Missouri. The benefits go on and on.

A reputable study recently demonstrated that a large portion of America's huge gains in productivity during the 1950s and 1960s were attributable to the building of the interstate highway system. The interstate system of superhighways was an intelligent, forward-looking investment in a rising standard of living, in enhanced international competitiveness. So is the current, phased-in, six-cent fuel tax proposal.

The legislature should get on with it. This is what government is for. There's too much on the line for any more delay. Debate starts today in the Missouri House of Representatives. We need action this week. The votes are clearly there in the Senate. Our message to legislators is: Floor it.

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is establishing himself as a force on the court's intellectually dominant conservative wing. In his first 25 opinions, Justice Thomas has voted with conservative Justice Antonin Scalia more than any other justice. The two have differed on only one case.

"Justice Thomas already has done more than solidify the intellectual conservative wing of the court," legal scholar L. Gordon Crovitz wrote last week. "It also seems likely that his lifelong career will on the Supreme Court will be a constant reminder to his critics of why they went to such lengths to try to block his nomination."