GROUP WANTS TO RAISE STATE INCOME TAXES

A left-wing group called Missourians for Tax justice wants the state to exempt food purchases from local sales taxes and replace the lost revenue with an income-tax increase. The proposal would effect a net tax increase. We nominate this as the silliest idea since some of the same folks two years ago proposed that Missouri adopt the nation's highest minimum wage.

It is silly on several levels. Proponents say they will be taking their case to state lawmakers in next year's session. But under the Constitution, any tax increase this large -- over $50 million, or one percent of state revenue, whichever is lower -- has to be submitted to a vote of the people. A tax increase such as this has about as much chance of winning voter approval as a Popsickle does of surviving outside in today's heat wave.

The proposal reveals a mind set aiming to redistribute income from Missouri income-taxpayers to lower income groups. Of course, on a smaller but still significant scale, this is what Mel Carnahan has already done. His sharp income-tax increases of 1993 have been followed by a series of piddling tax reductions -- not in the income tax -- but, for example, in the state sales tax on food.

We don't need another Carnahan-style tax increase. Missourians should just say no to Missourians for Tax Justice.