House passes tax amnesty bill

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- House Democratic leaders spent Thursday trying to salvage pieces of Gov. Bob Holden's plan for balancing the budget.

Holden's strategy depends on passage of several bills that would raise additional revenue and allow existing funds to be applied in untraditional ways.

House Speaker Jim Kreider, D-Nixa, mustered enough votes Thursday to pass legislation giving taxpayers a brief period to pay overdue taxes without penalty. The governor has said such a tax amnesty could bring in $15 million, which would be used for education.

According to Holden, the state must find an additional $220 million to fully fund the formula for distributing state aid for elementary and secondary schools in the fiscal year that starts July 1. But under another measure that cleared the House on Thursday, that figure would drop to $175 million.

The legislation, by Democratic Rep. Chuck Graham of Columbia, would change how the education formula is calculated to even out from year to year the amount needed to fund it. Full funding required $75 million last year but rose to $220 million this year.

Playing politics

Some Republicans said Graham's bill was motivated by politics.

"We are changing the rules in the middle of the game so we can say we fully funded the formula," said Rep. Mark Wright, R-Springfield.

Also Thursday, Democrats fought off a Republican attempt to gut still another Holden initiative -- letting the state take unclaimed, over-collected sales tax revenue and apply it to the education foundation formula. The legislation would let businesses that overpay their sales taxes recover the money if they can prove they'll return it to customers. Holden said the plan could net $10 million for schools.

Republicans, objecting to what they said would be a hardship on small businesses, amended the bill Wednesday. Democrats overturned the amendment on Thursday without debate.

Angered by the lack of debate, Republicans rose and booed Kreider.

"We want Griffin!" Republicans chanted sarcastically, suggesting they were reminded of Bob Griffin -- the once-powerful Democrat who served 15 years as House speaker but went to federal prison in 1997 for bribery and mail fraud.

Although the bill was finally amended back to Democrats' liking, it was tabled and has an uncertain future.