REFUNDS SHOW NEED FOR REAL TAX CUTS

In the next couple of weeks, Missouri taxpayers will get checks in the mail from the state's Department of Revenue. It is a refund for taxes collected in fiscal year 1997 that exceeded limits established by the Hancock Amendment. Last year, taxpayers got a check for the first two years of overpayments in fiscal years 1995 and 1996. Still to come, probably a year from now, are refund checks for fiscal 1998, which ended June 30.

All together, the four years of refunds amount to $940 million, which is shy of a billion dollars by just about what gambling contributes to Missouri schools in a year. Steps have been taken by the Legislature to lower some tax collections in an effort to prevent the need for further refunds, but those calculations won't be made until fiscal year 1999 ends in June of that year. If current trends continue, more refunds will be needed in spite of the elimination of state sales tax on food.

The Hancock Amendment to the state's Constitution was adopted by voters as a protection against too much taxation by the state. Unfortunately, the mechanics of the tax-limiting amendment allows the state to collect as much as it wants without regard to the cap on taxes, and then refund the excess at a later date. That's not a very efficient way to run state government.

It is particularly inefficient when taxpayers consider that it is their money being refunded in these checks -- money that should have been in their checking accounts all along and that should never have been sent to the state in the first place. Unfortunately, far too many taxpayers will regard the refund checks as some sort of bonus from state government, just as many federal income taxpayers regard refunds from the IRS as some sort of jackpot.

That's your money, folks. If you miscalculate your deductions on your withholding forms and wind up sending too much money to the state or federal governments through the year, that's your fault. Maybe you like to get refunds, so you use tax withholding as some sort of no-interest savings account. Fine. That's your choice.

But when the state takes too much of your money because it won't cut taxes substantially to avoid future refunds, it's a different story. Now you don't have a choice. You have to pay what the state dictates, whether it is income tax, sales tax or any other tax imposed in Jefferson City. You shouldn't have to pay too much -- nearly a billion dollars over four years -- and wait for refund checks to come to the mailbox. That's not the way our tax system is supposed to work.