Amendment wouldn't stop governors calling for new taxes

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder said his proposal to amend the Missouri Constitution wouldn't bar a governor from requesting higher taxes but would prevent the chief executive from budgeting the resulting revenue until it is actually in the bank.

At present, the constitution requires a governor to submit to the legislature a state spending plan based on estimated revenue collections "together with his recommendations of any laws necessary to provide revenues sufficient to meet the expenditures."

Kinder's proposed amendment would strike that clause from the constitution. If it clears the legislature, the measure would go on the Nov. 2 ballot for voter ratification.

The Senate Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee heard the proposal on Monday but took no action.

For two consecutive years, Democratic Gov. Bob Holden has presented the Republican-led legislature with spending plans that counted on new taxes. His $18.8 billion budget for fiscal year beginning July 1 seeks $520 million in new money that would require action by lawmakers, Missouri voters or both.

Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said a governor would still be free to advocate tax increases but such measures would have to be separate from his budget plan.

"He simply could not propose a budget to spend that money until the taxes have been approved by voters and the legislature," Kinder said.

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce testified in favor of Kinder's measure. While the amendment elicited no opposition in committee, Holden said last week that it isn't needed.

"Our constitution has done quite well under governors of both political parties and in both chambers when we have people willing to stand up and be leaders," Holden said.

Republican and Democratic governors in the past have asked lawmakers to raise taxes to cover their spending initiatives. However, a 1996 constitutional change that stripped the legislature of its authority to enact any significant tax increase without voter approval has made budgeting unauthorized revenue a trickier situation.

The legislature must pass the state budget by the first week in May, with the fiscal year starting July 1. As a practical matter, however, a statewide vote couldn't be held until June at the earliest, with an August election probably the more realistic option.

As a result, voter rejection of new taxes would force the governor to make midyear cuts if the revenue was built into the budget.

Nothing in Kinder's measure would mandate the legislature to pass a balanced budget, which Holden maintains it failed to do for the current fiscal year, forcing him to withhold from appropriations for public schools and higher education.

Even when a governor suggests a budget funded by higher taxes, the legislature currently isn't obligated to go along, as it declined to do last year. This year's tax proposals are also expected to die in the legislature.

The proposed amendment is SJR 41.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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