Who’s backing Missouri’s plan to eliminate income tax? Lawmakers divided
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Missouri voters will decide on Aug. 4 whether to allow ending the state income tax.
- Conservative political organizations are selling the policy to voters in town halls.
- Pro-business groups quiet as Realtors and progressive groups mount opposition campaign.
Missouri voters will decide whether to allow lawmakers to radically alter how the state collects taxes this August, and the campaigns for and against the proposal are kicking into gear.
Republican lawmakers are planning town halls across the state to sell the idea to voters. A coalition of left-leaning groups is characterizing the proposal as authorizing an “everything tax” at events across the state.
The messaging battle could be key as supporters promise voters they will take home more of their money, while opponents warn it will lead to overall tax increases for most people.
“I believe Missourians deserve clear answers about how it would work, how it benefit, and who would bear the costs? I fear that the amendment creates more questions than answers,” Colleen Downing, a Lee’s Summit resident, said at an anti-Amendment 5 event on Wednesday.
Opposing groups make strange bedfellows
The top financial backers of the opposition campaign for Amendment 5 aren’t typically associated with progressives. The Missouri Realtors Association dumped $1.9 million into the campaign against the amendment.
In 2010, Missouri realtors pushed a statewide ballot measure banning taxation for the sale of real estate. In 2016, Missouri realtors again pushed for a ban on new taxes on services like repair costs, doctor bills and child care.
“Conservatives used to mean you didn’t want a powerful central government. Amendment 5 puts all the power with the politicians at the central government, and it takes away power from the Missouri people,” said Scott Charton, a spokesperson for Missourians Against Taxation, the anti-Amendment 5 campaign funded by the realtors’ association.
Charton said that the Missouri Realtors Association is approaching the issue as nonpartisan and that its membership includes both liberals and conservatives. But the organization is unabashedly pro-business, Charton said, and believes conservatives should oppose it.
A coalition of left-leaning progressive groups has also started organizing against the elimination of the state income tax. On Wednesday, the left-leaning Progress MO hosted an event in Lee’s Summit where local seniors spoke in opposition to Amendment 5.
“We’re trying to raise awareness. What’s important to us is that people know and understand the policies that are being put before them, and the people and politicians who are doing it, and why,” said Claire Cook-Callen, executive director of Progress MO.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce, one of the leading pro-business organizations in the state, hasn’t taken a position on Amendment 5. The Missouri Farm Bureau, which is typically aligned with Republicans, also has not weighed in on the measure.
The Associated Industries of Missouri, a pro-business group, raised concerns about the legislation in Jefferson City and has remained skeptical.
“I haven’t seen any major organization come out in support,” said Rudy Veit, a Jefferson City Republican who opposes the elimination of state income taxes, on Thursday. “The money that has been raised so far in favor of it has been dark money from one PAC.”
The Missouri Libertarian Party, a political group that has pushed to eliminate both the state income tax and personal property taxes, has also come out against Amendment 5.
In a resolution released on June 1, the party said the amendment gives lawmakers the ability to circumvent taxpayer protections and gives politicians broad power to raise taxes for the “loose constraint that the stated goal of those increases be ‘to reduce or eliminate the income tax.’”
Conservative groups and Republican lawmakers aligned
The silence from pro-business groups shouldn’t be considered an indictment of the proposal, according to some proponents.
Tim Jones, a former top Republican in the Missouri House, who is involved in the campaign for Amendment 5, said business organizations like the Chamber are broad coalitions. Some members, he said, would be opposed to Amendment 5 to protect their own narrow interests.
Jones did point out that the elimination of the income tax was supported by a slew of conservative and Republican political groups.
“You had groups like Americans for Tax Reform, the National Taxpayers Union in our state, you have MO Tax Relief Now and Freedom Principle,” said Jones. “I think there was close to 45 coalition partners in Missouri and the nation.”
On Sunday, the Missouri Republican Party officially came out in favor of the proposal.
“The Missouri GOP supports Amendment 5!” the party said on Facebook. “It’s time to slash the income tax and unleash prosperity in MO!”
Americans for Prosperity, a powerful lobbying group among Republicans, backs the proposal and is hosting town halls across the state to promote it. This week it hosted two town halls in the Kansas City metro, one in Grandview and another in Plattsburg.
A dark-money PAC poured $1.9 million into a campaign to replace Missouri’s income tax with expanded sales taxes. The PAC released a slew of online advertisements promoting the measure.
The proposal also has the weight of Kehoe and top legislative leaders behind it. Lawmakers are touring the state touting the policy.
“We’ve been doing lots of town halls all over the state of Missouri,” said Bishop Davidson, a Springfield Republican. “Anytime we have a chance to have a conversation about it, people’s concerns are put at ease. The misinformation surrounding the amendment is dispelled, and folks get excited about casting their ballot on Aug. 4.”
