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Press release: Speaker Tim Jones Rebuffs Governor’s Latest Attacks on Legislature’s Efforts to Provide Substantive Tax Relief

Speaker Tim Jones Rebuffs Governor’s Latest Attacks on
Legislature’s Efforts to Provide Substantive Tax Relief

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones said the governor has again resorted to half-truths and hyperbole to attack the tax relief efforts of the Missouri General Assembly. Jones said it was especially disingenuous for the governor to refer to the tax law clarifications passed by the legislature for Missouri job creators as a “special-interest spending spree.”

“These are much-needed clarifications to our tax laws that will prevent the governor from exceeding his authority by unfairly collecting more taxes from our employers who create the family-supporting jobs that drive our economic engine. Business leaders around our state have made it clear they are greatly displeased with the way the chief executive has chosen to narrowly interpret many of our existing tax exemptions so that he can collect more of our tax dollars to further grow the size of government,” said Jones, R-Eureka, who noted the executive branch had made changes to existing tax policy without vetting the changes with the legislature.

Jones added, “As a legislative body we came together to stand in defense of the taxpayers and to provide a shield against the glaring overreaches made by the executive branch. The governor fails to understand that these dollars do not belong to him, they were earned by Missouri businesses of all sizes that are the lifeblood of our economy and the providers of jobs.”

Jones also took issue with the governor’s estimates of the impact some of the tax relief provisions would have on state revenues. “The governor fails to understand the positive impact substantive tax relief will have on our economy when businesses can re-invest earnings into infrastructure development and more jobs with higher pay instead of using tax dollars to expand government and increase spending.