Keep the Income Tax

Governor Mike Kehoe has a plan to spur "growth." Eliminate the Income Tax. He and the Majority Republican legislature have delivered - they are sending a plan to the ballot this fall. All you have to do is vote yes and poof! Better living conditions arrive.

Except the devil is in the details.

The Income Tax makes up about 65 percent of state revenue. That's 2/3's of the state's budget for roads, bridges, schools and parks. We're not going to cut all of those things from the budget. So, the money will come from somewhere else.

There's the rub - when you vote to eliminate the Income Tax, you're also authorizing the legislature to raise all kinds of Sales Taxes to make up the difference.

They say they're going to let you keep more of your money - until they take it from the other hand.

This is a massive handout to millionaires and billionaires. The income tax is exactly what makes our tax system progressive. So those who have a little more, pay a little more. Without it, we all pay similar sales taxes and the burden shifts to working Missourians. Currently, many seniors and some people who work but don't earn very much, don't pay income tax. Just those higher earners. But when it's gone, we'll all be buying less due to higher sales taxes. This is a bad deal for Missourians.

I suspect Republicans know this. But they're going to let you say no at the ballot, so they can show their wealthy donors that they tried. It could be that the GOP is embracing a policy of DEGROWTH. If that's the case, then I applaud them. Generally, we put taxes on things that we want to DISCOURAGE. Thus, sin taxes on beer and cigarettes. If we set sales taxes too high, we run the risk of depressing our economy. People will just buy less. At the very least, we're going to send citizens along the edges of our state across the border to spend their money somewhere else.

Someday, we'll need to talk about the end of growth, but I don't think giving the wealthiest among us another handout is the way to get there.

Enough already. When you want somebody who is going to work for REAL Missourians, and try to make ALL of our lives better, than vote Blue.