LETTERS: HOUSE GOP THWARTED MISSOURI TAX-CUT EFFORT

To the editor:

In your May 26 article and June 2 and June 4 editorials, you failed to include House and Senate Republicans' role in the failure to achieve a tax cut in Missouri.

In the House, Democrat Rep. Ken Jacob worked for many months trying to secure House Republicans' support for either a quarter-cent reduction in the overall sales tax rate or a 2 percent reduction in the food sales tax. Although House Republican members would not commit to either of these tax cuts, Rep. Jacob decided that the issue needed to be brought to the House floor for debate.

In House floor debate, the minority floor leader, Mark Richardson, claimed that the proposed tax cuts of $150 million to $175 million did not go far enough and that by raiding Missouri's Rainy Day Fund savings account and not paying off $88.1 million of Missouri's high-interest debt, which had been accumulated during former Gov. John Ashcroft's term, the tax cut could be pushed up to $300 million.

It was unusual that Rep. Richardson would suggest not placing the $86.6 million (which the governor recommended and the House had already approved) into the Rainy Day Fund. In a Feb. 27, 1995, press release, Rep. Richardson called on the governor to place $22 million in the Rainy Day Fund, since "it is imperative that government be responsible to the needs of the people and prepare for unexpected emergencies." House Democrats believed that Rep. Richardson's sudden reversal on not wanting to fund the Rainy Day Fund or pay off high-interest debt was fiscally irresponsible and not responsive to the needs of the people.

In a party-line vote, House Republicans went on record voting against a 2 percent food sales tax reduction (House Journal, Thursday, April 25, page 45). Despite Republican rhetoric to the contrary, their vote clearly speaks for itself, showing they did not want a tax cut to pass. House Democrats overcame these obstacles and sent a tax-cut bill to the Senate.

As for the Senate, despite all of the Southeast Missourian's calls to pass some form of tax reduction, their own senator, Peter Kinder, can share part of the responsibility for the Senate's failure to at least send a tax-cut package back to the House for consideration. If the tax cut was truly an important priority to the senator, he should have responded with a package which could have gained the support of his fellow members instead of empty rhetorical newspaper columns seeking to place blame.

As a final note, I remember that growing up in Benton the worst thing we had to fear from the Cape Girardeau paper was biased articles regarding high school sporting events. Now, unfortunately, the readers of your paper have to wonder whether they are receiving an unbiased presentation of the facts or someone's slanted political agenda. The Southeast Missourian can and should do better.

RICHARD ALAN McINTOSH, D-Benton

Missouri House of Representatives

Jefferson City