Noel Republican's bill would cut corporate income taxes in half, reduce sales tax

(From Rep. Dirk Deaton, R-Noel)

The Special Committee on Tax Reform, for which I serve as Vice-Chairman of the committee, will soon be holding a hearing on my House Bill (HB) 816. HB 816 as introduced would cut Missouri’s corporate income tax from its current rate of 4% to 2% beginning January 1, 2024. 

If in a subsequent year corporate income tax grew by $50 million or more there would be an additional 1% cut which would take the rate from 2% to 1%. 

This would give us the lowest corporate tax rate in the U.S., below North Carolina which currently has a 2.5% corporate tax rate. Cutting this tax would bring more business investment into our state. Furthermore, it would allow Missouri businesses to cut prices for their customers, pay their employees more, and invest more in their local communities.

 

HB 816 would also cut the state sales tax from 4.225% to 3.8%. This would help Missouri consumers pay less on thousands of items purchased every day, allowing you to keep more money in your pocket and less in Jefferson City.

The first step in the process is a public hearing where people can testify for or against the legislation. This step will be completed in the coming days. At this step in the process non-partisan legislative staff will issue a “fiscal note” to report how much state revenue might decrease under this proposal. I will report that to you and other things learned from the public hearing very soon in a future issue of The Deaton Report.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ADVANCES INITIATIVE PETITION REFORM LEGISLATION

Legislation designed to protect the sanctity of the Missouri Constitution is moving quickly through the legislative process and is now on track for discussion on the House floor. House Speaker Dean Plocher and Speaker Pro Tem Mike Henderson said as early as next week the House will consider a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to change the initiative petition process.

“It’s important that we protect the right of Missouri citizens to make their voices heard while also preventing our initiative petition process from being abused by out-of-state money that has no ties to our state and no interest in working on behalf of Missouri families,” said Plocher.

He added, “Our constitution is a sacred document that should be treated with respect and amended only when absolutely necessary. By implementing commonsense reforms we can continue to give Missourians a voice but minimize the influence of special interests from outside our state.”

This week HJR 43 was approved by the House Committee on Elections and Elected Officials. If approved by the legislature and voters, the proposed constitutional amendment would change the threshold required to approve changes to the state constitution. Currently, changes to the constitution require only a simple majority for approval. HJR 43 would raise the threshold to 60 percent voter approval for passage.

Henderson, who sponsors the legislation, said, “I see the constitution as a living document but not an ever-expanding document. We have one of the largest state constitutions in the country and that’s because we keep adding and adding to it.”

He added, “Since our current constitution was written in 1945 it has changed more than 60 times. In comparison, the United States Constitution has been amended 17 times since 1791. It takes 38 states to ratify an amendment to the constitution.”

Henderson noted Missouri is currently one of only 18 states to allow initiative petitions for a constitutional change and has one of the easier processes in the country for amending the constitution.

HJR 43 was approved by the House Elections and Elected Officials Committee by a vote of 11-5. It now moves to a House Rules Committee, which must approve the bill before it moves to the floor for discussion. The committee also passed three other proposed constitutional amendments (HJR 30, HJR 24, and HJR 25) that would modify the requirements to approve constitutional amendments.