Rep. Kathy Swan: Legislature approves tax cuts, pay raise and gas-tax ballot measure

The Missouri Legislature passed 149 bills in the just-completed session, including ones that cut taxes, give state employees a 1 percent pay raise and allow voters to decide whether to raise the state�s motor fuel tax to fund transportation needs.

State Rep. Kathy Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, highlighted some of the approved bills at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce�s First Friday Coffee at Isle Casino.

Under a measure on the November ballot, voters will decide whether to increase the fuel tax from 17 cents a gallon to 27 cents a gallon. The increase would be phased in by 2.5 cents a year over the next four years, beginning in July 2019, Swan said Friday.

The tax increase �is expected to raise $288 million annually for the state road fund and for the Highway Patrol, and $123 million annually for local government road construction and maintenance,� Swan told the crowd of several hundred area chamber members.

Swan said lawmakers approved measures to cut individual income and corporate income taxes.

The income tax would be lowered from 5.9 percent to 5.5 percent, starting in January, with gradual annual reductions to 5.1 percent if the state meets revenue targets, she said.

The corporate tax rate would be cut from 6.25 percent to 4 percent, effective in 2020.

�It will make Missouri the second-lowest corporate income tax state in the nation,� she said.

Lawmakers passed a measure requiring any benefits utility companies receive from federal tax cuts to be refunded to customers in the form of rate cuts.

�For Ameren Missouri, that means approximately $133 million in savings, resulting in a 4.8 percent rate cut,� Swan said.

Lawmakers also passed a bill creating a new grant program to help expand broadband internet access, Swan said.

�Currently, 61 percent of rural Missourians do not have access to broadband,� she said.

Lawmakers reduced the annual cap on historic preservation tax credits and did not provide any funding for state tax credits for low-income housing projects for the coming fiscal year.

Another bill raised the minimum age people can be prosecuted as adults from 17 to 18 years of age, unless certified as adults.

Missouri had been one of only five states that prosecuted 17-year-olds as adults, Swan said.

Swan said schools will benefit from dyslexia screening in kindergarten through third grade, starting this year.

�One of every five individuals has some sort of dyslexia-related disorder. It is a neurological disorder that impacts the ability to read,� said Swan, whose efforts are responsible for establishing the program.

Dyslexia screening is important, she said, because �first you learn to read, then you read to learn and if you never learn to read, your ability to learn and be successful in life is much more difficult.�

�In higher education, we were able to restore the governor�s proposed cuts,� Swan said.

The Legislature passed a $29.6 billion state budget with general revenue accounting for nearly 33 percent of the funding or more than $9 billion, Swan said.

Lawmakers have �the most discretion� over how to spend general revenue, Swan said. As a result, �most time and effort spent in budget meetings� focuses on general revenue, she said.

The individual income tax generates 72 percent of general fund revenue, she said.

Swan said elementary and secondary education comprise the single largest category receiving funding from general revenue, amounting to 36 percent. Another 9 percent of the general revenue budget goes to higher education, she said.

Federal funds make up another 34 percent of state revenue. Fifty percent of federal funds go to social service programs, Swan said.

For every dollar in the state budget, 31 cents goes to social services and 21 cents goes to elementary and secondary education, she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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