Missouri Republicans Push to Abolish State Income Tax

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A group of Republican lawmakers is working to make it possible for Missouri’s new governor to cut the state’s income tax.

Missouri’s income tax rate is 4.7% right now. This brings in billions of dollars that are used to pay for state programs. People who support this move say that getting rid of the income tax will make the population and economy grow. But some people are worried that this will only help people with the most money.

For families to keep more of their own money and for companies to want to come here, grow here, and hire more hardworking Missourians, Gov. Mike Kehoe said in his inaugural speech on Monday, “My administration will focus on reducing taxes and cutting regulations.”

Rep. Bishop Davidson, R-Republic, said he thinks taxes need to go down because of the new governor.

Davidson said, “We’re always growing; our economy is always growing; our revenues are always growing; it tends to go up over time.” “Our government spending is growing too fast for that pace,” he said. We could buy down our rate if we could keep our spending growth steady. We could purchase our growth and any extra money that was left over.

As the population grows, the plan would slowly lower the rate until it is zero. It would also limit what politicians can spend by connecting the state budget to population growth. In other words, the state budget could only go up by 1% from the previous year if the population grows by that much.