JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Jay Nixon is once again criticizing the Republican-controlled legislature, saying today that Missouri lawmakers had cut taxes for lawyers and lobbyists, but raised taxes on soap and baseball gloves.
The comments came folded into a statement in which Nixon refuses to endorse the proposal on the August ballot that would raise sales taxes for the next decade to fund new roads projects. Nixon said he simply could not endorse the measure and chided Republicans for giving tax breaks to the wealthy.
“I cannot in good conscience endorse a $6.1 billion tax hike on Missouri families and seniors when special interests and the wealthy are being showered with sweetheart deals,” Nixon said in a statement. “This tax hike is neither fair nor fiscally responsible solution to our transportation infrastructure needs and it does not have my support.”
Nixon and Republicans have been doing battle over tax policy for months. Last week, Nixon slammed Republicans for passing more than $700 million in tax breaks for various businesses in the final hours of the legislative session. Earlier this spring, after vetoing a tax cut, Nixon said the measure’s poor wording could virtually eliminate all state income taxes after it’s complete phase-in.
Nixon’s office did not respond to inquires from The Missouri Times about whether or not Nixon has instructed his various state departments to prepare for the contingency, which he said days after his veto was a “real likelihood.”
Of course, actually eliminating most of the state’s income tax, if Nixon is correct, would not impact his term of office. The next governor of either party would have to weather that storm. Although 2016 figures don’t seem too worried about the possibility of losing the state’s income tax.
“Governor Nixon seems too willing to say anything to keep Missourians from getting a tax cut,” said Catherine Hanaway, former Missouri House Speaker and candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor in 2016. “He is simply wrong that the recently passed tax cut would bring an end to state income taxes. In fact, the Republican legislature required that the state actually experience growth in revenues before the tax cut kicks in. The bottom line is that the measure doesn’t ‘take’ anything away from the state, it just allows Missourians to keep more of their hard earned money. We all need to remember that this money doesn’t belong to the state it belongs to Missourians.”
Auditor Tom Schweich — long rumored to be eyeing a 2016 gubernatorial bid himself — said he was not convinced by Nixon’s arguments.
“I was not persuaded by Governor Nixon’s arguments at all,” Schweich said.
Attorney General Chris Koster’s campaign did not respond to requests for a comment.
Republicans largely said that Nixon analysis of the cut was deeply flawed. Speaker-elect John Diehl called it “laughable.”
But Nixon’s doom-and-gloom comments on the Senate Bill 509 now seem like just the first in a series of criticisms of Republican tax policy, aimed at weakening Republican’s credibility on fiscal issues ahead of the coming election.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
