For Immediate Release: September 9, 2014
Legislators Should Sustain Tax Vetoes
Statement from Executive Director Amy Blouin
As legislators consider whether to override Governor Nixon’s vetoes of budget-busting tax breaks or state spending, it is critical to recognize the dire nature of the state’s current budget and the long-term cumulative effect that ill-advised tax breaks are having on Missouri’s ability to meet even the most basic of obligations to Missouri’s families.
“Missouri is beginning to see the consequences of its fiscal shortsightedness,” said Amy Blouin, Executive Director of the Missouri Budget Project, a nonprofit public policy analysis organization that analyzes state budget, tax, and economic issues. “Repeated tax cuts and the lack of a real economic development policy – made all the worse by recessions – means that Missouri will be far short of being able to fully fund education and maintain our already anemic level of services.”
An analysis this summer by the Missouri Budget Project found that once the numerous tax breaks passed during the 2014 legislative session are fully implemented, Missouri would be more than $2 billion short of the revenue needed to fund services at FY2014 levels and fully fund the education formula.
“Missouri legislators should sustain the Governor’s veto of budget-busting tax breaks, and look toward the 2015 legislative session to consider meaningful revenue policies that ensure funding for education, health, infrastructure, and other services that bolster our economy,” continued Blouin. “For now, we just need to stop the bleeding.”
Adjusted for inflation, Missouri is already far short of its 2008 spending power. While the biggest tax cut is scheduled to go into effect in 2017, the legislature faces the opportunity to override the Governor’s vetoes of several additional budget-busting tax cuts this week.
The full report, Missouri Revenue: Digging Out from a Hole Only to Go Over a Tax Cut Cliff can be found at https://www.mobudget.org/files/Cliff-July2014.pdf.
#
The Missouri Budget Project is a nonprofit public policy analysis organization that analyzes state budget, tax, and economic issues.
