Missouri lawmakers want to cut taxes at the most inopportune time
In this election year, Missouri lawmakers continue to consider tax cuts at the most inopportune of times. The state has a long list of costly needs: higher education, highway repairs, public schools, state workers who are the lowest paid in the nation, and its corrections department.
You can hardly be too cynical about these efforts. A package of income and business taxes that lawmakers adopted in 2014 is only going into effect this year. Their cost could reach $200 million next year.
Yet legislators persist. One motivation for Republicans: As Gov. Eric Greitens' misdeeds mount, the GOP needs to score a win with a proposal that will make a lot of people happy and distract voters from the governor. Tax cuts do that, and so legislators plug away.
Missouri can ill afford additional tax cuts. Lawmakers need to walk away from this short-sighted and highly political idea now.
More work to be done
The Missouri General Assembly has a number of other issues on its last-week to-do list. Lawmakers understand the stakes, and should be able to move quickly to address these lingering concerns:
Medical marijuana
Sports gambling
This story was originally published May 14, 2018 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Missouri lawmakers want to cut taxes at the most inopportune time."