04/30/2009
A narrow beam of light seemed to break through the Missouri Legislature's dismal session earlier this month.
House Speaker Ron Richard came to the phone to tell us how he and his fellow Republican representatives understood the pain experienced by thousands of St. Louisans who depend on public transportation. He expressed sympathy about the massive reduction in service as a result of the major budget shortfall at Metro and pledged to do his part to help see St. Louis through the crisis.
He, along with House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, had just introduced legislation that would direct $20 million in federal economic stabilization funds to Metro. The funds would be a temporary fix, enabling the agency to restore routes to regional employment centers. It would buy time for St. Louis County voters to reconsider a half-cent sales tax increase to fortify Metro funding.
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Ten days later, Mr. Richard wouldn't come to the phone. He had just stripped the Metro funding out of the bill. According to news reports, he was pursuing a new plan — one that his caucus would try to jam through without a public hearing or input — that would take the federal aid and use it to reduce the state income tax rate from 6 percent to 5.5 percent.
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We wanted to ask Mr. Richard about these issues, but his communications director said his schedule was full, that the speaker could not free even 10 minutes to explain the political about-face to St. Louisans struggling to get to and from work.
Indeed, the speaker was booked. He was readying himself to appear on Fox News.http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/021D25B06D6AF4DD862575A70081E812?OpenDocument
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