By Collin Reischman
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Founder of the Missouri Budget Project, Amy Blouin, likes to say the organization serves as a resource for legislators. Probably because they do something most of the elected officials just don’t have time to do: wade knee-deep into budget and tax policy issues.
One of the better parts of her job, she said, is teaching people the “human impact” behind the numbers so abstractly inflated or slashed.
“We, as a state provide a foundation of basic services and I believe it’s the foundation of the quality of life we have and the opportunity for all people to be successful,” Blouin told The Missouri Times.
In legislature exploring major changes to tax credit programs, income tax levels and the controversial expansion of Medicaid, the Missouri Budget Project isn’t at a loss for things to work on.
Apart from opposing broad based tax cuts —not always a poplar position in Missouri’s political climate— Blouin’s Project has thrown its support behind the expansion of Medicaid, in the face of adversity against the Republican majority opposition.
Blouin says the Project’s positions are based on numbers, not on politics.
According to Blouin’s work, the blow to the State budget from eliminating revenue in corporate or individual income tax far outweighs the economic benefit. What’s more, Blouin says Kansas is the perfect example.
“We estimated [a Kansas model] would reduce the general revenue of Missouri about $1.6 billion per year,” Blouin said. “That’s a huge portion of our revenue. Our general revenue is about $8 billion or so.”
Kansas’ projected budget this year would likely mirror the result in Missouri if such broad-based tax cuts were passed, she added.
Blouin said her group worked hard to educate legislators about Medicaid expansion, as political misinformation or complexity of language is a common barrier to understanding the real-world impact of such policies.
“Once you really look at the consequences and the language, [Medicaid expansion] makes economic and fiscal sense for the State budget,” Blouin said. “And you can see the variety of support, anecdotally. I think that bolsters the argument, if you will. It’s not often the Missouri Chamber [of Commerce] advocates for something like this.”
Blouin said many lawmakers didn’t realize the potential revenue that could be gained simply by closing unpopular loopholes that still exist. Without making sweeping changes to existing laws, Missouri could collect more revenue in sales and income taxes without raising rates by a single dollar, she added.
“We don’t want to double-tax a business in this state,” Blouin said. “That’s not conducive to what we want to do. But if you close a common loophole that allows multi-state companies to effectively avoid paying income tax in Missouri, where they make a profit, you can increase revenue you capture in the budget without having to increase their rates at all.”
The Project is supporting the Marketplace Fairness Act, an online sales tax, to capture revenue within the State. Blouin said anyone supportive competitive markets would understand the need to make online retailers pay the same sales tax rates as their “brick and mortar” counterparts.
“Everything from education to transportation to healthcare, mental healthcare, child welfare, all depend on being able to, as a state, generate and collect revenue,” Blouin said. “Let’s capture that revenue that we should be getting in the first place before making major and possibly damaging changes to the tax code.”
Collin can be reached at collin@themissouritimes.com or via Twitter at @Collin_MOTimes.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.