Grocers support tax cut bill

As executive director of the Missouri Grocers Association, I am writing to express my organization's collective support for Missouri Senate Bill 509, which will provide Missouri with its first broad-based income tax reduction in almost 100 years.

Senate Bill 509 will reduce the individual income tax by a half percent and the small business income tax rate by 25 percent. By allowing our members to retain and reinvest more of what they earn back in to their companies, they will have the capital they need to expand their operations and create new jobs. The same holds true for all of Missouri's small business owners. Additionally, studies show time and again that people spend what they have, so we know the money individuals save will be recirculated throughout the economy.

This legislation provides income tax relief in a fiscally responsible manner that includes triggers and safeguards to ensure against the possibility of a budget shortfall. To that end, implementation of these tax cuts will be delayed until 2017, when administrative projections show the education foundation formula should be fully funded, alleviating any concern about that; and the tax breaks will not go into effect unless $750 million in additional funding comes into state revenue.

Right now, Missouri ranks an abysmal 47th in gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Passage of SB 509 will go a long way toward putting Missouri back on the path to economic prosperity. Please join the Missouri Grocers Association in supporting SB509.

DAN SHAUL, state director, Missouri Grocers Association, Springfield, Mo.