St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 12

2B ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH SUNDAY, MAY 12, 1996 THE POST-DISPATCH PLATFORM I KNOW THAT MY RETIREMENT WILL MAKE NO DIFFERENCE IN ITS CARDINAL PRINCIPLES, THAT IT WILL ALWAYS FIGHT FOR PROGRESS AND REFORM, NEVER TOLERATE INJUSTICE OR CORRUPTION, ALWAYS FIGHT DEMAGOGUES OF ALL PARTIES, NEVER BELONG TO ANY PARTY, ALWAYS OPPOSE PRIVILEGED CLASSES AND PUBLIC PLUNDERERS, NEVER LACK SYMPATHY WITH THE POOR, ALWAYS REMAIN DEVOTED TO THE PUBLIC WELFARE, NEVER BE SATISFIED WITH MERELY PRINTING NEWS, ALWAYS BE DRASTICALLY INDEPENDENT, NEVER BE AFRAID TO ATTACK WRONG, WHETHER BY PREDATORY PLUTOCRACY OR PREDATORY POVERTY. Founded by JOSEPH PULITZER December 12, 1878 JOSEPH PULITZER, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER 1878-1911 JOSEPH PULITZER, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER 1912-1955 JOSEPH PULITZER EDITOR AND PUBLISHER 1955-1986, CHAIRMAN 1979-1993 AY MICHAEL E. PULITZER, CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT NICHOLAS G. PENNIMAN IV, PUBLISHER WILLIAM F.

WOO, EDITOR TERRANCE C.Z. EGGER, GENERAL MANAGER RICHARD K. WEIL MANAGING EDITOR EDWARD A. HIGGINS, EDITOR OF THE EDITORIAL PAGE April 10, 1907 JOSEPH PULITZER 900 North Tucker Boulevard 63101 (314) 340-8000 EDITORIALS wIhS lllkv mSm JSP ufl vy 111 II For Tax Fairness And Simplicity SraSf If I Sr. tool PtfT-Pt5fATSH- 'We Take Off The Tax Until After The Election, Put It In Here And It'll Come Out To You Over There' LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE Every taxpayer buys food; every taxpayer would benefit.

Any change that reduces the burden on poorer families for the purchase of necessities deserves support. By contrast, the Senate version targets just two segments of the population. Increasing the deduction for dependents to $1,000 from the current $400 would help only families with dependent children. Similarly, exempting portions of private pensions for families in certain income brackets would help only retirees. Add the ever-present threat by Sen.

John Schneider of adding a tuition tax credit for parents who send their children to private school, and the Senate seems destined to approve a less equitable version of the tax cut. James Mathewson, president pro tern of the Senate, says his chamber's plan is better than the House's because of complaints by small grocers about having to tax food items at one rate and nonfood items at another. In most cases, though, such adjustments can either be handled by computer or resolved fairly easily with a little practice. The fairness and simplicity of the House plan should be the main considerations. With less than a week until adjournment, the Missouri Legislature has two very different plans to cut taxes and avoid future refunds under the Hancock Amendment, The House version, to cut the state sale's tax on food by 2 cents, is simple and fair.

A Senate plan, approved Thursday by the Committee on Corrections and General Laws, would affect a more limited segment of the population, in a less direct way, by increasing the deduction for dependents and allowing an exemption for private pensions. The House version should prevail. Gov. Mel Carnahan, who started the tax-cut discussions when he called for a fractional, across-the-board reduction in the state sales tax, has come around to accepting a larger cut applied only to food, even though it was first proposed by Republicans. The 2-cent reduction would trim sales tax revenue by nearly $180 million.

That figure is more than the $150 million in refunds due to state income-tax payers because of the difference in growth between state tax revenue and Missourians' personal income. But the $30 million gap is a price worth paying for the increased fairness in the state's tax code. End The Dual Voting System In Illinois Now that Gov. Jim Edgar has lost in federal and state court, he should give up his hard-headed opposition to the federal Motor Voter, law. Mr.

Edgar should scrap Illinois' unfair two-tier voting system that denies 130,000 registered voters the right to vote in state elections. Regrettably, Mr. Edgar plans instead to appeal. His legal arguments are weak and his political motivations suspect. The Motor Voter law requires states to allow people to register to vote when they apply for or renew a driver's license.

Mr. Edgar first tried to block the law in federal court. When he failed, he set up a two-tier system that allowed those registering under the law to vote in federal, but not state elections, a decision that disenfranchised about 100,000 voters in the March primary. Cook County Circuit Judge Francis Barth recently threw out the two-tier system as a violation of state law and the Illinois Constitution. Judge Barth ruled that Secretary of State George H.

Ryan had violated state law by failing to notify individually each person obtaining a driver's license that he or she could register. Judge Barth also found that the two-tier system violated the state's unfunded mandates law because it required extra work from local election officials. The unfunded mandates law requires the state to pay for the extra cost of a new state requirement. By failing to pay the extra administrative costs of the two-tier system, the state was violating the law, Judge Barth said. Finally, Judge Barth found that the two-tier system violated the constitution's promise of "free and equal" treatment by setting up "dual and separate state and federal electorates." He ordered state officials to end the dual system and allow federally registered voters to vote in state and local elections.

The state plans to seek a delay of the order. Mr. Edgar's argument is that the ease of motor voter registration invites election fraud in a state with a rich history of it. But the League of Women Voters, which opposed Mr. Edgar in court, says that no evidence of fraud has turned up in the other states that have implemented the law.

One suspects Mr. Edgar and Republicans are influenced by political considerations as well in that wider voter registration is generally believed to help Democrats. It is time for Mr. Edgar to give up his transparent political motives and his weak legal arguments. gitimate children living in their neighborhood.

Welfare breeds welfare. Dave Gerst Maplewood I am a moderate and I feel that the May 5 article on the teens does nothing but give the Republicans even more ammunition for radical welfare reform by glorifying welfare cheating, unwed mothers and drug addiction. Also, I think that black leaders should be disgusted with the fact the girls took welfare and still had children they could got afford to care for. In my opinion, the unwed mother issue should be the black leaders No. 1 priority to improve the economic conditions of their constituency.

Jim Bellenger Mehlville Just Good Business A recent article on gasoline prices and the Voss truck stop in Cuba, Mo. quoted a rival owner of a truck stop who attributes Voss' lower prices to Voss being "virtually debt free." This rival appears to be saying that Voss has an unfair advantage because he was a good businessman and paid off his debts. The Missouri Petroleum Marketers Association wants the Legislature to restore a law that could result in fines for retailers who sell below cost and injure competition. Whose cost? The good businessman who paid off his debts? Or someone who is not successful? I have ceased to be surprised by those who believe that success should be penalized. We have become a culture in which equal opportunity has been replaced by equal outcomes as an inalienable right.

The recent controversy about entrance criteria at Mizzou has similar overtones. In both cases, groups are claiming unfairness when they cannot achieve their dream result. What happened to the notion that rewards should reflect effort? "Unfair" should mean that the reward does not reflect the effort because of laws, regulations, or cultural biases that impose disadvantages inconsistent with effort. Once upon a time, the work ethic was fashionable; now it seems that wining is in fashion. William Schoening Creve Coeur and the ATF agent, along with the sheriff's detectives, spent a total of approximately 40 minutes with the Muellers.

Without the support and cooperation of local citizens, law ment agencies cannot be effective. An incident like this threatens the trust people have in law enforcement agencies. For the past 18 years, this tactical team and officers have removed from our neighborhoods machine guns, large amounts of drugs, drug lab equipment and enough plastic explosives to level a small subdivision. In each of those operations, we have attempted to balance the manner of the sheriff's department involvement with the potential threat. The same was done here.

Doug Saulters Sheriff St. Charles County No Model Family The May 5 front-page article about how a teen-age girl was able to keep her family together after the death of their grandfather is an outrage. She cooked, cleaned and was able to manage the day-to-day household concerns by herself. I would certainly hope she could manage a household she is a mother of two children! In addition, she is not doing it on her own; we, the taxpayers, are supporting her, her two illegitimate children, her sister and her illegitimate child, and her brother. How can you say they are doing it on their own? Since when are two teen-age girls with three illegitimate children between them living on welfare something to be praised on the front page of the newspaper? Why not feature teen-agers who are not getting pregnant, who are working and supporting themselves without burdening hardworking taxpayers? Welfare mothers are not good examples for our teens today.

Where are the fathers of those children, and why aren't they supporting their own children? Paul Clark St. Charles The May 5 story gives a real role model for our children to follow: three teen-aged children living on welfare and collecting $914 a month plus the money the three of them can make at their jobs. They also get their doctor visits, dental checkups and shots paid for by Medicaid. All this time they were living in a manner that the neighbors said caused no notice, although it did produce three illegitimate children (also on welfare). The mother of the teens is now working and living in another home (also on welfare, we can assume).

Now the children are going to get a four-bedroom home in Mol-ine Acres. Somehow they qualified for a loan (could this be welfare I'll just bet that the people in Moline Acres will be tickled pink to see three teens with three ille Sheriffs Role In Gun Raid Let me begin by offering to the Mueller family the apology that they were victimized by a set of circumstances in which they had no part. I want the same thing for myself and my family that eveyone wants: the freedom to live our lives without worrying about becoming the victim of violent crime. In protecting people from crime, it is my responsibility to ensure that the training and procedures of the deputies of the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department reflect the high standards and respect for citizens' rights that are called for in our constitutions.

First, the sheriff's department was not involved in the investigation that led to the issuance of the warrant but became involved only to serve the warrant on the Mueller home. In this case, the city needed the warrant served in an unincorporated area of the county, so sheriff's detectives were present at the scene to serve the warrant. In addition, the municipality requested the sheriff's department tactical team to secure the scene because the items to be searched for were numerous illegal weapons, including sawed-off shotguns and automatic weapons. The tactical team ensured that the address and home were the correct one described in the search warrant. The tactical team consisted only of St.

Charles County sheriff's department personnel. It was their job to enter the home and ensure the safety of the children thought to be there and to locate and ensure that the adults present were not hurt and did not hurt anyone. The tactical team entered the home through an open door, announced "sheriff's department, search warrant," located and ensured the safety of the children and located the adults, all in under three minutes. Yes, Mr. Mueller was placed in protective handcuffs on the floor until the situation was under control.

No, the tactical team did not wear face masks or ATF jackets. The tactical team wore vests consisting of bright yellow letters against a black background stating "SHERIFF'S DEPT." The county attorney's remark that the tactical team had done an outstanding job in securing the area and in ensuring no one would be hurt was in response to allegations that the team had endangered lives during the entry. After the tactical team secured the residence, they called the detectives in from a block away. Two St. Charles County detectives entered the home with the detectives of the municipal police department and one agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The entire tactical team was out of the house 12 minutes after they first entered. The leader of the tactical team apologized to Mrs. Mueller before leaving the house. The municipal detectives A Balancing Act On Immigration Police groups had warned against turning large numbers of unsupervised children loose on the street, where they were likely to get into trouble. In addition, educators should not have to become immigration agents, ferreting out children whose crime was trying to learn how to read and write.

Civil libertarians have raised justifiable concerns about procedures that employers will use to verify whether their workers are legal immigrants. Pilot programs in various states would be studied to determine which method works best; eventually, standardized information would be entered into a nationwide database that critics worry could lead to a national identification card. The specter of Americans being forced to carry documentation papers to prove their right to be here is troublesome. Wisely, the Senate split off the control of illegal immigration from legislation dealing with legal immigration, which will be left for another time. Now, the House and Senate must reconcile conflicting provisions of their bills.

They should draw the fine line between protecting the integrity of America's borders and respecting the rights of children and those who are living here legally. Restrictions on illegal immigration passed by the Senate 97-3 recently should help ease Americans' worries about people who enter the country without permission. The wide margin the measure earned shows the power of such concerns in an election year, and while most of the bill makes sense, a few provisions raise concerns that should be met before the final version goes to the White House. The legislation calls for an increase in the number of border guards, nearly doubling the force to 10,000 over the next few years. It also adds to the penalties for smuggling aliens into the country and for providing fraudulent documents.

In addition, it sets out procedures to determine the best way for employers to determine whether prospective employees have entered the country legally. Further, the Senate limited the ability of both legal and illegal immigrants to receive some government services, though it wisely refused to go along with the overly harsh move by the House to deny schooling to the children of illegal immigrants. President Bill Clinton has said that including such a punitive measure in the final bill would bring a veto. That stance is a proper defense of children whose future should not be jeopardized because of illegal action by their parents. More Phoney Issues I read your two editorials re Sen.

Bob Dole's "phony issue" concerning the appointment of federal judges by President Bill Clinton. Bully for you. Now, in the name of editorial fairness, how about an editorial debunking the phony issue expounded by Democrats that Republicans are going to cut Medicare and Medicaid, the school lunch program, toss the aged into the streets, ruin the environment, I won't hold my breath. Harold Bookhout Salem, 111. Time To Ban All Land Mines -1 Gen.

David Jones, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, puts antipersonnel mines "in a category with poison gas." He's right. So-called dumb anti-personnel mines, of which at least 100 million lie buried around the world, kill some 10,000 people a year and maim another 20,000. They must be abolished now. However, a draft treaty signed by 55 countries in Geneva recently doesn't do so. The treaty, an update of a 1980 protocol on antipersonnel weapons, would phase out nondetec-table plastic mines which remain dangerous virtually forever over nine long years.

The Russians and Chinese, with large stocks of such mines, want that much time to use them up. The United States is dithering about whether to improve on that position by banning them earlier on its own, in 1999. Either way, the certain result is that many more thousands of innocent farmers and children will be killed or maimed in the years to come, long after those who laid the mines have departed. The treaty doesn't even include credible enforcement mecha- a Alt T'- 1 (rrffrJt nisms. Canada and many European nations support the immediate abolition of all mines.

The United States does not. The Pentagon wants to retain the right to use smart ones, which automatically self-destruct after a short period. Though they may be inherently less dangerous, they are still unbelievably cruel. Several military figures in addition to Gen. Jones think they are unnecessary, including such a combat-experienced officer as retired Gen.

Norman Schwarzkopf, who was commander of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf War. The right course is to ban all mines smart and dumb right now. Anything less than a total ban will be very hard to enforce. Worse, it will focus technology and money on improving mines rather than on the urgent task of destroying the millions of mines already in place.

The compromise treaty is unworthy of ratification. The world's nations must go back to the conference table and do better. r'r i LJ letterspd.stlnet.com Letters From the People St. Louis Post-Dispatch 314-340-3139 Letters From the People St. Louis Post-Dispatch 900 N.

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