This pretty much tells the story. From yesterdays Columbia Tribune...

http://www.showmenews.com/2003/Feb/20030220News018.asp

=============================

Conservation funds targeted
Senator calls for reauthorization vote.

Published Thursday, February 20, 2003
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Voters would get a chance every four years to decide if the Missouri Department of Conservation should continue to receive specialized tax revenue under a proposal backed by a rural state senator.

Sen. John Cauthorn’s measure, introduced yesterday, would ask voters every four years to reauthorize the one-eighth-cent sales tax originally approved by voters in 1976.

The measure also includes a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution, to be placed on the November 2004 ballot, clearing the way for the periodic tax votes. If the amendment is adopted, the first tax vote would occur in 2006.

Established in the state constitution, the conservation department has a budget of $125 million but does not receive any general state tax revenue.

The department has been under fire since last year’s release of a state audit that concluded the agency might have spent millions of dollars unnecessarily and failed to properly monitor how its grants are used.

The audit also showed that the department’s operating costs increased from 50 percent of its total expenditures in 1982 to 83 percent of its total expenditures in the last fiscal year.

Department officials concurred with some of the audit’s findings but said there was a feeling that many of the agency’s programs were unfairly targeted.

Cauthorn, R-Mexico, predicted his bill would be amended to provide for the reauthorization vote every 10 years instead of every four.

" We have had some problems with the conservation department, but I think we need to see how much support is out there for them," Cauthorn said. " It would provide be a good broad spectrum on how certain segments of the state would vote on that issue."

Cauthorn said the agricultural community supports the department because of hunting and fishing programs but has concerns about some of its environmental policies, which he did not describe.

Denise Garnier, legal counsel for the conservation department and a former legislative staffer, said the department is disappointed that Cauthorn is proposing periodic votes on the tax.

" If the tax were to fail, the immediate impact would be a reduction of well over 50 if not 60 percent of the department’s revenue multiplied by the loss of federal matching money," Garnier said. " It would also put the department in competition with all the other state agencies for revenues appropriated by the General Assembly."

Since Missouri voters approved the sales tax, more than $1 billion has been raised for land acquisitions, nature centers and other conservation programs.

With the income from the tax as well as from license fees and federal programs, Missouri ranks third in the nation behind California and Florida in total spending on conservation.