Tax cuts topic of Missouri School Boards' Association meeting

State tax cuts will be the topic of the Missouri School Boards' Association Fall Regional Meeting today in Oak Ridge.

Held at Oak Ridge High School and starting at 6 p.m. with registration, the gathering is expected to attract 30 to 40 educators from Cape Girardeau, St. Francois, Madison, Iron, Ste. Genevieve, Bollinger and Perry counties. The title of the meeting is "Tax Cuts in Missouri: The Battle Continues."

An income-tax cut bill, such as last session's House Bill 253, likely will be brought up during the next session of the Missouri Legislature, said Brent Ghan, MSBA chief communications officer.

Three local legislators are for the idea of a tax cut as an economic development tool and as a way to attract business, but the thought of lowering taxes worries many educators. House Bill 253 would have phased in a 50 percent tax deduction for business income over the next five years, along with reducing the income tax rate by 0.5 percent for individuals and 3 percent for corporations over the next 10 years. For the cuts to occur, state revenue would have had to increase by $100 million annually. The legislation was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, and the Legislature couldn't override the veto.

Cape Girardeau School Board president Tony Smee, who plans to attend today's gathering, said in a message to the Southeast Missourian he expects a tax-cut bill to be reintroduced.

"I'm kind of interested to see how it will be revised, [or] how they will reintroduce it. I was opposed to House Bill 253 that was vetoed this past fall, not only because of the massive decreases that it would have had for public schools of our state, [but] I think it was being touted on the surface for something it was not," Smee said. "There were a lot of misnomers about what that bill would have done. It was just a flawed bill on many fronts."

Ghan said the association was "extremely concerned" about HB 253 and thought it would reduce state revenue by about $800 million. He said there was no way to know how much that would reduce school funding, but said about one-third of the state budget goes toward funding education.

"Our view is that [the tax] issue will be coming back in the General Assembly again in January. We've seen some legislators talking about drafting new versions of tax-cut bills," Ghan said.

Terri Tomlin, Jackson School Board president and a member of the MSBA board of directors for Region 13, said she's anxious to hear tonight's discussion. One reason the regional meetings are in the fall and spring is so school board members can discuss topics and share best practices.

Tomlin said she thought House Bill 253 was going to be detrimental to Missouri schools. "And hopefully, there's another way they can find to accomplish what they want to without hurting the school funding. And it could be they'll research this and maybe find another way to do that. I do know these topics tend to come back again in the next session and kind of reinvent themselves in a different way," she said.

The meeting will include a half-hour video presentation of a panel discussion presented at MSBA's annual conference last month in Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. Some panelists were tax experts, such as Dr. Judith Stallman of the University of Missouri.

After the video, those attending will break into small groups to discuss what to do about these issues locally, such as keeping in touch with local lawmakers.

Ghan said Stallman has done "a lot of research" on other state tax-cut proposals and reached the conclusion that they have "a very minimal impact" on economic development. Kansas, for example, is starting to see the negative effect tax cuts are having on education and other services, he said.

"In our view, it's a race to the bottom. We don't feel like we need to imitate what Kansas is doing at all," Ghan said.

Reps. Kathy Swan, R-Cape Girardeau; Donna Lichtenegger, R-Jackson; and Sen. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau; supported House Bill 253 and said it would boost the economy and education.

Swan said she anticipates another tax bill will come in the next legislative session. "The main philosophy in my mind behind the bill, since most jobs are with the small business sector, is that is where the most significant tax cut would have been. The idea is to put more money back into the pockets of small businesses" so they can potentially hire more people, she said.

She said there was so much information on what the financial effect of HB 253 would be, she didn't think anyone could say for certain what would happen. " ... We'd run the numbers on it, and we had not come up with anything like what the governor had come up with," Swan said.

Lichtenegger said there is no way to know whether a similar bill will be introduced, but she would vote for it again.

Wallingford said the Republican caucus will meet Nov. 14 through 16 in Kansas City, Mo., where Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, will present his agenda for the next legislative session.

Wallingford said he "certainly doesn't want to hurt schools."

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

Oak Ridge High School, 4198 State Highway E, Oak Ridge, MO