Missouri governor says GOP hearings on tax error are ‘political grandstanding’
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson accused his fellow Republicans in the legislature of “political grandstanding” on Thursday for holding hearings to investigate a mistake on the state’s withholding tables that will impact tax refunds.
The governor released a statement to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Thursday defending the director of his Department of Revenue, Joel Walters.
Walters was grilled for a second time by a House oversight committee this week over the handling of the error that could reduce or eliminate refunds for thousands of Missouri taxpayers on their 2018 state income tax returns.
He has previously been questioned by other legislative committees about the issue.
“Since this year’s session began,” Parson said, “Director Walters has testified at ten hearings where the withholding issue was discussed. Our office is aware of the decade old mistake that was found in the withholding tables and have worked with the department to correct the problem and focus on solutions, not political grandstanding.”
Republican legislative leaders defended the House’s investigation, saying oversight of the executive branch is a key function of the General Assembly.
“It is unfortunate that the executive branch is confusing grandstanding with standing up for the taxpayers, but we will never back down from doing our job,” said Rep. Robert Ross, a Yukon Republican who chairs the Special Committee on Government Oversight.
The committee is scheduled to hold another hearing next week.
House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, said the investigation will continue in order “to fully examine the actions by the Department of Revenue that are impacting taxpayers and state revenue, and to protect Missourians from experiencing this type of pain again.”
Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said that while he has not been a part of the House investigation, “I don’t think the legislature doing its job is out of bounds… We write the budget, so the oversight function of what we do is incredibly important to the process.”
At the heart of the back-and-forth is a 15-year-old error in state tax tables that was discovered following implementation of federal tax cuts. That error, which has been corrected, means many workers didn’t withhold enough money from their paychecks throughout 2018.
Lawmakers have been highly critical of Parson’s Department of Revenue for not doing enough to notify Missourians about the error. Walters agreed at a hearing on Wednesday that his department has not done an effective job communicating to the public.
“I’ve received a lot of calls on this issue,” said Senate Minority Leader Gina Walsh, D-St. Louis County. “And now that folks are starting to file their tax returns, they’re finding out the ramifications of this. I don’t have a problem with what the House is doing... I don’t think it’s grandstanding. We’re asking questions we should be asking. I asked mine at the beginning of the session and was not satisfied with a lot of the answers. I just think it was handled poorly.”
This is not the first time that Parson, who took over as governor in June following the resignation of former Gov. Eric Greitens, has run into conflict with the GOP-dominated legislature.
Lawmakers have threatened to cut the budget of his department of health over Parson’s handling of funding for a program which ensures that critically-ill patients suffering from trauma, stroke or heart attacks get to hospitals that can treat them most effectively.
He also caught flak for defending a series of consulting contracts initiated by his predecessor that were awarded in a streamlined process that bypassed the state’s normal procedures for bidding.
