Annexation Discussed.



The City Council will meet for its regular meeting this evening at 7:30 in Council Chambers in City Hall.

The agenda includes a scheduled vote on a request to vacate alleys in the block between Central and Mound Streets where the old Hawthorn School once stood. The alley right-of-ways have been legally the City’s but never actually used for alleys.

A Public Hearing is scheduled on the proposed annexation of property lying North of and adjacent to Chapel Estates as requested by Poto Investment, LLC/John Harpole.

The Council will also hear the first reading on the following Council bills:

Council bill 02-71 amending Section 2.406 of the City Code to increase the amount of moneys in the Clerk’s Revolving Fund.

Council bill 02-72 amending FY2003 Budget and appropriating $10,000 from Lodging Tax Funds for Main Street Carthage.

Council bill 02-73 annexing property lying adjacent and southeast of the intersection of Chapel Road and HH Highway.

The Council meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month.

FISCAL RESTRAINT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

by Steve Hunter
State Representative 127th District

The General Assembly met for its constitutionally mandated veto session this past week. Although no attempt was made to override any of the Governor’s vetoes, the brief session did provide an opportunity for legislators to review the state’s budget difficulties.

The state constitution mandates that the Governor balance the budget, and it gives him multiple tools to accomplish this. For instance, it gives him the power to make line item vetoes—to cancel specific appropriations made by the legislature while approving others. These vetoes can be overridden by the legislature by a two-thirds vote.

But the Governor can also make budget withholdings, which are just as effective as vetoes and cannot be overridden by the legislature. The Governor vetoed less than a half-million dollars of the $18.9 billion fiscal year 2003 budget just passed by the legislature. By contrast, he implemented budget withholdings totaling hundreds of millions of dollars of general revenue as well as tobacco settlement proceeds in the fiscal year 2002 budget.

As far as the fiscal year 2004 budget goes, which the Governor will submit to the legislature next January, the Governor predicts revenues to fall below spending by $300 million to $500 million. To close the gap, he is asking state agencies to come up with cost-savings and will ask the legislature to pass legislation closing unspecified business (both large and small business) "tax loopholes."

It is good news that the Governor is coming around to budget reform instead of deficit spending. In fact, more than one of the objectives the Governor is mentioning with regard to state agencies had been proposed by the Blue Ribbon Budget Panel assembled last year by House Republicans. These common sense budget reforms include freezing growth in state agency budgets and allowing agencies to prioritize their respective duties and reallocate resources to higher priorities.

The Governor’s attempt to deficit spend by raiding the rainy day fund this year was the wrong approach. First, revenues did not fall nearly as much as the Governor projected last fiscal year. At the end of fiscal year 2002, the state had more than enough money in the bank to make-up for the Governor’s devastating budget cuts to higher education and nursing homes. The Governor did not need to spend the rainy day fund, and he did not need to cut $83 million for colleges and universities and $20 million for nursing homes.

If the Governor had been allowed to spend the rainy day fund for last fiscal year’s budget as he intended, the dire fiscal straits he now says we are passing through this year would be compounded by burdensome rainy day fund debt payments. The state constitution requires that once borrowed from, the rainy day fund must be repaid, with interest, starting the very next fiscal year. The Governor would not answer the question of how he would repay the rainy day fund with a continuing revenue decline.

We must be diligent in reforming our budget process without simply feeding government’s insatiable appetite for money. The solution to declining state revenues is fiscal restraint, not deficit spending. Higher taxes are not the answer. Missouri lost 55,000 jobs over the past year, more than any other state. Raising taxes encourages people and employers to live somewhere else. We need job growth in Missouri, and more jobs means more tax revenue.

The get-together to mark the completion of the pavilion out at Kellogg Lake is this Wednesday, don’t ya know. Looks like the weather might be near on perfect for the event.

The work of those who volunteer will also no doubt be recognized, especially by those who frequent the lake area. For the last couple a years many have worked to keep the area clean and to make the park another gem for the community.

If you’ve got an urge to join the effort, or just wanna get out to see the progress, stop by anytime after 5:30 for the gatherin’ and get a taste of catfish and a bowl a beans.

If you enjoy an old fashioned music pickin’ party, bring your instrument and join in. (A lawn chair will likely be handy too).

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune- Brooks Hospital

TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH

By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

Is It Heartburn, Hiatal Hernia or Both?

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have a hiatal hernia that gives me heartburn really bad. Where is this hernia? How does it cause heartburn? Antacids help me, but I would like to take care of things without medicine. How about surgery? — F.A.

ANSWER: Hiatal hernia and heartburn are not the same. A hiatal hernia is an upward bulge of the stomach into the chest through the diaphragm muscle. The diaphragm separates chest from abdomen.

Heartburn (acid reflux) is an eruption of stomach juices and stomach acid into the esophagus, the long, muscular tube through which food makes its way from mouth to stomach. Think of it as the stomach being a volcano that erupts and spews red-hot lava into the esophagus.

Many people with a hiatal hernia also have heartburn. However, people can have heartburn without a hiatal hernia. The two are not always linked.

For heartburn, put 6-inch blocks under the bedposts at the head of your bed so gravity keeps stomach juices in the stomach. Nighttime is the time when acid reflux acts up the most.

Don’t ever lie down immediately after eating, and don’t eat anything for three hours before retiring. Stay away from chocolate, peppermint, coffee, orange juice, tomato juice and any food that makes you have a heartburn attack.

Two tablespoons of a liquid antacid taken one hour after eating and another two tablespoons taken three hours after eating often control heartburn.