Missouri needs lower taxes. Amendment 5 is the wrong way to accomplish that | Opinion

There is a lot to like in Missouri Amendment 5 on the Aug. 4 ballot. I certainly don’t like paying income taxes, and would love the extra bump in our family’s grocery budget every month. Even better: Eight states already get by without an income tax, so we know it could be done responsibly if the state is wise and careful in its budgeting. What’s more, for all the rhetoric rocketing around social media, our state legislature in its current form is certainly not going to crank up the sales tax unreasonably — if anything, lawmakers are likely to be too restrained in their approach to the tax rate.

And on top of all that, I’m a fusty old conservative who thinks the legislature should just be in charge of the tax rate. State and local governments shouldn’t have to beg the voters for permission every time the state needs to fix a bridge, hire a cop or pay a teacher a living wage.

So again, there is much to support in this amendment, and much that I would like to see put into our state constitution.

And yet, we can’t vote for only the parts of an amendment that we like. Amendment 5 not only includes giving the state legislature more discretion over taxes (which I am in favor of), but it also includes Section 3, which would directly tie the hands of local governments in their control over those same tax rates. What the state legislators rightly want for themselves they would wrongly deny to local elected officials.

This is not a new problem. Tying local government’s hands in the name of freedom, fiscal responsibility or whatever the cause of the moment happens to be is a common tactic for both parties at the state level across the country, and has been for more than a century. We the residents of Missouri ought to resist the stripping of our local rights away, even when it comes attached to programs we might otherwise support.

Just as we should trust state legislators to do their jobs when it comes to handling statewide taxes, so the state legislature should trust local governments to exercise local wisdom. Voting no on Amendment 5 is an opportunity to send the message to Jefferson City to let local governments be free to govern.

Coyle Neal is an assistant professor of public service at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri. He lives in Bolivar with his wife and children.