Missouri Gov. Parson rejects comparisons of his tax plan to Kansas cuts under Brownback
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday rejected comparisons between his tax plan and former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s signature income tax cuts, saying his proposal to reduce tax rates won’t lead to budget cuts.
Parson has called a special session of the Missouri General Assembly to begin Sept. 6 to approve his proposal, which includes an income tax rate cut and the extension of agricultural tax credits. His plan would lower the state’s top individual income tax rate from 5.3% to 4.8%. It also eliminates the bottom income tax bracket entirely.
“We’re not going to do what Kansas did over there. It won’t even be close,” Parson told reporters after an event promoting his plan at Union Station in Kansas City.
“What we really do is figure out what we can afford, what our revenues were to be able to sustain that. It’s why we’re taking basically a smaller bit of the apple.”
Democratic lawmakers and some budget analysts have criticized Parson’s plan, saying it risks the kind of budget problems that plagued Kansas just a few years ago.
In 2012, Brownback signed a massive tax cut that he at one point called an “experiment,” with the hope of eventually eliminating income taxes in the state.The law reduced state income tax rates across the board and eliminated them entirely on limited liability companies and other pass-through businesses.
Brownback soon ended up making significant budget cuts while raising the state sales tax rate. A backlash to the Kansas tax cuts eventually led to the election of a wave of Democratic and moderate Republicans in 2016 who rolled back the tax law the next year.
“Brownback ripped the bandage off all at once. The average Kansan felt the pain and changed course,” Missouri state Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat, said on Twitter. “MO GOP have been pulling off bandage one hair at a time for decades. Long term pain to the average Missourian is the same, just so slow no one notices.”
Amy Blouin, president and CEO of the Missouri Budget Project, said Monday that the income tax cut would require cuts to state services similar to what happened in Kansas.
“While Governor Parson focused on how certain struggling individuals might pay less in taxes, the proposals discussed today remain heavily weighted to benefit the wealthiest Missourians,” Blouin said in a statement.
Parson’s special session and tax cut proposal comes after he vetoed two tax proposals, including one that would have sent one-time payments to Missourians who owed income tax in 2021 — capped at $500 for individuals or $1,000 for married couples filing jointly. At the time, he said the proposal was rushed.
The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed reporting
