Over the past several months, a growing bipartisan coalition of city and county officials, law enforcement officers, and educators has come out in support of Gov. Nixon’s vetoes of the special tax breaks passed by the legislature in the final hours of the legislative session. A total of 62 cities and counties have formally voiced their opposition to these bills and earlier this week a group of more than 45 local government finance officers sent a letter detailing the damage that would result from these provisions if they became law.
Local Governments:
- “These actions reduce the tax base of virtually every community in Missouri and place at risk initiatives approved by local voters. Revenue reductions to local sales taxes will prohibit us from completing capital projects approved by voters.” – Government Finance Officers, 8/4/2014
- “Sales tax by far is the greatest source of revenue [for counties.] Effectively, any county sales tax exemption results in a higher property tax.” – County Commissioners Association of Missouri, 7/31/14
- “If this happens [and the Governor’s vetoes are overridden], Chillicothe and Livingston County have got serious problems.” — Livingston County Commissioner Ken Lauhoff,St. Joseph News Press, 6/13/14
- “This is policemen, firemen, potholes in the streets and we don’t have a way to make it up. This hurts all of our citizens.” — Jackson Mayor Barbara Lohr, Southeast Missourian, 6/13/14
- “What more can I cut?” It’s “disappointing to me that our legislature goes up there and just crams this at the last minute.” — Neosho City Manager Troy Royer, Neosho Daily News, 7/16/14
- “It’s very concerning to me that our legislature, without eyes on any individual problems or individual programs to run, would make cuts that could affect bond issues or certificates of participation that have been issued predicated on that revenue stream.” — Greg Beavers, Farmington City Administrator, Daily Journal, 7/15/14
- “Its annual cost to us is everything we’ve saved in recent years… That just hurts, bad” — Jim Viebrock, Presiding Commissioner of Greene County, Springfield News-Leader, 6/10/14
- “It kills us. It completely wrecks our ship.”– Greene County Administrator Tim Smith,Springfield News-Leader, 7/16/14
Law enforcement:
- “Hannibal Fire Chief Bill Madore indicated the results to his department would be‘devastating.’ ‘It would shake us to our foundation,’ he said.” – Hannibal Courier-Post, 6/12/14
- “Response time would go down. The equipment would not be there. We live off the sales tax.” — Chillicothe Police Chief Rick Knouse, St. Joseph News Press, 6/13/14
- “The Sheriff’s Department of St. Francois County lives solely off of sales tax. The citizens voted for it to be used for law enforcement in St. Francois County. Since 2008 when the economy took a nosedive, we’re down 14 people through attrition right now. We’re doing more with less people. Less money, less equipment.” – St. Francois County Sheriff Dan Bullock, Daily Journal, 7/15/14
- “Our response time would be increased. Our staff might have to be cut. Any cuts to our budget would put our residents at risk.” — St. Francois County Ambulance District Administrator David Tetrault, Daily Journal, 7/15/14
Schools:
- These provisions would reduce Proposition C funding for schools by $93.7 million annually. “For Fulton Public Schools, that means a $247,000 loss, which Superintendent Jacque Cowherd equated to 4.5 teachers. ‘If we had to go to our community today and ask to replace that, that’s a 13-and-1/4-cent tax levy increase,” Cowherd said.’” – Fulton Sun, 8/3/14
- “Seventeen different tax breaks were passed in the last few days of the session… We’re supposed to get a little bit more formula, but then we’re losing from Prop C, and so it’s going to come out in the middle.” – Concordia Superintendent Mary Beth Scherer, The Concordian, 6/18/14
- “A lot of people don’t realize the impact that will have on school districts,” — Independence School District Superintendent Dale Herl, Independence Examiner, 6/7/14
Channing Ansley
Director of Communications
Office of the Governor
(573) 751-0290
