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After only 30 minutes of debate, on Wednesday the Missouri Senate gave preliminary approval for a tax bill that will give big cuts to the wealthy and corporations while leaving our communities without the resources they need to prosper.
The Senate acted without an estimate of the bill’s fiscal impact. However, the Missouri Budget Project’s initial estimate is that the legislation will cost the state more than $500 million, and possibly as much as $800 million.
The Substitute for Senate Bill 617 (Eigel) would:
- Cut the top individual and corporate income tax rates
- Allow Missouri to enter the streamlined sales tax agreement, but cut individual income taxes further upon federal action on the issue
- Phase out the state deduction for federal taxes paid
- Increase gas taxes
- Establish a nonrefundable state Earned Income Tax Credit
Low- and middle-income Missourians already pay a higher share of their income in state and local taxes than their wealthier counterparts, and SB 617 would further this inequity.
Missouri’s elite would get most of the bill’s benefits, while leaving the middle class to foot the bill.
Kansas has demonstrated the results of similar cuts, and the triggers included in Senate Bill 617 will do little to protect the Show-Me State from calamitous effects similar to what Kansas saw after its own tax debacle. In fact, Missouri already invests less in its families than Kansas did, even after its tax cut
