Jetton announces plan to enhance food programs

A $6 million initiative announced Saturday by Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton would enhance nutrition programs for senior citizens and give a tax break for people who make donations to food pantries.

During a visit to the Salvation Army pantry in Cape Girardeau, Jetton, R-Marble Hill, said he first began considering how to aid food programs after seeing a line of people waiting for help in his hometown.

"I saw about 200 people standing in line for food on the main drag of Marble Hill," Jetton said. "I wondered, why in the world would that be happening?"

Two of the three ideas Jetton proposed would require extra state spending. The third would create $2 million in tax credits for donations to food banks.

Jetton was joined by area advocates for seniors, as well as lawmakers from Cape Girardeau and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who is the designated advocate for senior citizens in state government.

The two nutrition programs aimed at senior citizens would add $1 million to state funding for home-delivered meals and $3 million in additional spending on food stamps so any older person eligible for aid would get a minimum of $30 a month. Some seniors who receive food stamps currently get as little as $12 a month.

Jetton also wants to change how the funds are allocated so that rural programs receive more.

The unfairness of the current formula is illustrated by the situation facing the 18-county region served by the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging, said Glenda Hoffmeister, executive director.

Approximately 9.9 percent of Missouri's seniors live in the region, compared with about 24 percent in the St. Louis Metro area, she said. But area senior nutrition centers provide about 28 percent of the meals served to older residents each day in the state, compared to about 17 percent in the St. Louis region.

Those figures translate into 1.4 million meals delivered annually in the region covered by the area agency on aging, Hoffmeister said.

Funding for the program is based on population rather than the numbers served, she said.

In the food stamp portion of Jetton's proposal, Missouri taxpayers would add $3 million a year for two years to amounts allocated for senior citizens. The time limit would force state lawmakers to take another look at senior nutrition needs to determine if more money should be allocated or another approach tried, Jetton said.

In the tax credit programs for food pantries, the program would be targeted at small donations, Jetton said. The maximum credit for a donation to any single food pantry would be capped at $2,500, he said, and available only to the person or company actually making the donation.

Some state tax credits can be sold or transferred to another person, he noted. These would not.

The credit would be available for cash and food donations. When the credit is applied for a donation of food, the goods would be assigned their wholesale value, he said.

A tax credit program makes more sense than state subsidies because too many rules usually accompany direct aid, Jetton said.

"This is a philosophic decision that encourages local folks to get involved," Jetton said.

The Salvation Army provides help through its pantry to about 800 people per month, said Maj. Mike Thomas. The tax credit would allow the pantry to offer better service to more people, he said.

The tax credit would expire after four years, Jetton said, so lawmakers could study how effectively it is used. If it is not renewed, he said he believes those who have become habitual donors would continue.

All of the incentives are possible because the state has seen an upswing in tax collections, Kinder said. "The good economy of the state is throwing us enough revenue to allow us to do this," he said.