Missouri Jobs with Justice is teaming up with other organizations to educate residents about the impacts it believes the elimination of the state’s income tax would have. Wednesday night, the coalition hosted what it called an “emergency meeting” in Springfield at the Library Center's Hatch Auditorium. It's one of 12 "Fighting for MO" meetings being held across Missouri this month. The Hatch Auditorium holds 500, and many seats were filled.
The event began with the chant, "the people united, shall never be defeated."
Speakers pushed for things like fair housing, livable wages, protection from discrimination, immigrants’ rights, women’s rights and more. And they pushed back on an effort to eliminate the state’s income tax.
A House resolution that was recently approved allows voters to decide whether to expand sales and use taxes to eliminate the income tax.
Speakers Wednesday said if the income tax is eliminated, wealthy Missourians will benefit the most while low-income residents will pay more and that public schools will suffer.
Roman Moody is a Springfield resident and a leader with Missouri Jobs with Justice.
"The tax plan they have schemed up, isn't a tax cut. It's a tax shift where the rich and powerful pay less, and we all pay more," he said, to which a few in the crowd booed. "It is clear that this is just another step by our elected officials to get more power to billionaires and keep the rest of us fighting for crumbs."
But many Missouri legislators support eliminating the income tax, which is one of Governor Mike Kehoe’s top priorities this year.
State Representative Brian Seitz of Taney County recently spoke in favor of the effort on the House floor.
"For years, no-income states like Texas, Tennessee and Florida, have often led the pack in attracting and retaining residents looking to put down roots where they do not have to split ownership over the fruits of their labor with state government," said Seitz.
Opponents argue that those three states have other sources of revenue that Missouri doesn't have. Florida has tourism, Texas has oil, and Tennessee has Nashville, said a speaker Wednesday night.
According to the Missouri Budget Project, income taxes make up 64.5% of Missouri’s budget and that eliminating it would mean $5 billion less each year for things like schools and other services that support Missourians “from the cradle to the grave.”
But a recent St. Louis University poll found that 52% of Missouri voters prefer that the Missouri State government rely on sales taxes more than individual income taxes to raise revenue. Only 29% said they prefer income taxes to sales taxes.
At Wednesday night's event, Missouri Jobs with Justice asked attendees to fill out a form, indicating how they would work to push back against things like the proposed income tax elimination and Amendment 3, which would ban most abortion in Missouri.
