The other day, we went into the office to touch base with the new Worth County Superintendent, Matt Martz. He presented us with some sobering figures – House Bill 253, the massive tax cut bill passed by the Missouri Legislature, could cost Worth County as much as $180,000 annually. He did not even want to think about the cuts that he would have to recommend if the legislature overrides Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of this irresponsible bill. This bill caters to lawyers and special interests at the expense of our children and our future as a country.
It is highly ironic that HB 253 gives special tax breaks for the benefit of lawyers, who already make enough income as it stands right now. Rush Limbaugh has been crying the blues for the last 20 years over all the frivolous lawsuits that he says are clogging up the courts. But HB 253 gives a 50% deduction on business income on businesses that are set up in the same manner as law firms, accounting firms, or lobbying firms. So, as an aside, given that the legislature is so willing to give tax breaks to lawyers all of a sudden, maybe there was never a problem with that in the first place.
There are three priorities that have to be on every person’s list in order for society to function – family, state, and the larger community. Since this is a capitalist society where people are responsible for their own well-being, it therefore follows that a well-educated public is necessary for our capitalist society to flourish as it is imperative that people are given the resources early in life that they need in order to succeed. And in order for our country to remain competitive with powerful nations such as the Russians and Chinese and emerging regional powers such as Iran, it is an imperative for our government to give our schools the resources that they need in order to develop the best education possible for their students.
Supposing for the sake of the argument that HB 253 would bring more jobs to the state, given that this is being done at the expense of our children and schools, it follows that these jobs are not likely to be the kind of quality jobs that would attract more people to this state or raise the quality of life. In order for us to compete with the Russians and the Chinese and the Iranians, we have to have world class schools and world class colleges providing a world class education to our people.
The St. Joseph News-Press, in a recent article, presented conflicting accounts of whether or not HB 253 would benefit our schools. But there was a clear difference between the two sides. Opponents of HB 253 presented exact figures showing how these tax cuts would hurt our children and our schools. The supporters did not present any such figures showing how it would help. We would have been a lot more convinced of the merits of the bill had supporters been able to present tangible figures showing businesses who were willing to locate to Missouri including Worth County and Northwest Missouri if this bill were to pass, figures showing how our schools would benefit, and figures showing how the state would benefit financially.
On the other hand, the State of Kansas already tried this sort of thing a few years ago and the results have been a disaster. Kansas’ revenues have only grown by 2.7% in 2013, compared to 10% for Missouri. Kansas has underfunded schools by over $1 billion since a similar bill was passed. And credit bureaus recently dropped Kansas’ credit rating, making it harder for the state to do business or to borrow money. The same would happen if the legislature were to override Governor Jay Nixon’s veto.
Missouri already has one of the most tax-friendly environments in the country. They have the 7th lowest state taxes as a percentage of personal income, 5th lowest in per capita state taxes in the country, and 8th lowest business tax rate. The legislature has always been able to present a balanced budget in a timely fashion year in and year out. And the legislature can fully fund the Funding Formula that is being underfunded annually by around $620 million by getting rid of most of the $700 million worth of annual tax credits that are going to special interests. Given the massive amounts of your taxpayer dollars that are going towards tax credits for special interests, it is obvious that there is a culture within the statehouse worse than a lot of other statehouses where special interests are catered to.
In the meantime, the politicians have repeatedly broken promises made to our schools and our children to fully fund education. We were told back in the 1980’s that if we would vote to approve the lottery, it would fully fund our schools. In fact, it barely funds a small portion of school revenues. The Funding Formula was another such promise, made and broken by the politicians of Jefferson City.
We have one request of the people who represent us. We realize that our legislators don’t have all the answers and that it is an annual challenge to balance the budget. We get it. All we want is for our legislators to keep the promises made to the people over the years. The fact that none of us have all the answers means that it is even more important than ever to develop a well-informed public who is actively engaged in the political process. That way, by working together, all of us can come up with much better answers than one or two of us. Having a free public education in this country is a right. Special interests do not take priority over our children and schools.
To do otherwise threatens the foundations of the basic freedoms that are found in the Bill of Rights. There are certain political, governmental, and corporate interests who would be happy with a public that is easily manipulated. In many ways, it would be much easier to live in a dictatorship, where decisions are made for us and not by us. But we did not take the easy way out when we revolted against the British back in 1776. We were a well-educated society well-versed in the lessons of those who had gone before us. Many of us came here because we did not want Kings to make decisions for us anymore. For us to continue to be a free society, we must give our schools the resources they need to develop productive well-informed citizens.
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