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The Missouri House and Senate have hammered out a hybrid version of the tax bills each chamber recently passed, but with luck, it will never become law. When the Senate passed its version in March, we wrote:
This package is billed as Missouri’s answer to the radical tax package passed last year by Kansas Governor Brownback. Its sponsor explained, “I’m trying to stop the bleeding. I’m trying to stop the businesses from fleeing into Kansas,” and then invokes the kind of magical thinking that almost always results in a deficit. According to the Associated Press, State Senator Kraus predicted his plan would “create an economic engine in our state” that would generate enough new tax revenues to make up for the losses.”
The bill the legislature will now send to Governor Nixon is a regressive income tax cut package that includes: a reduction in the corporate income tax rate, a 50 percent exclusion for pass-through business income, an additional $1,000 personal and spouse income exemption for individuals earning less than $20,000 in Missouri adjusted gross income, and a reduction in the top income tax rate from 6 to 5.5 percent.
In order for the legislation to become law, Governor Jay Nixon will have to give his okay, but he has signaled he’s going to veto the legislation. Recently he said, “Taking more than $800 million — literally the equivalent of what you spend on higher education, or literally more than you have for all of corrections or mental health — is not the fiscally responsible approach.” He reiterated that message again this week.
Assuming Nixon, a Democrat, does veto this expensive tax package (its annual cost will be upwards of $700 million), the Republican-controlled legislature will put an override on their agenda when they return in September for a special veto session.