June 2, 2014

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Ten Good Reason to Vote against the Transportation Sales Tax

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By the Editorial Board, May 31, 2014

It has been said of this editorial page that we’ve never met a tax increase we didn’t like. That’s not entirely true, but it’s close. We tend to favor fair taxes used in the common good for vital public services.

But now we’ve studied the three-quarter-cent state sales tax increase that the Legislature proposed and Gov. Jay Nixon placed on the Aug. 5 ballot. To say we don’t like it is an understatement. It is an abomination.

A study published in 2013 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the poorest 20 percent of Missouri households paid 5.9 percent of their income in sales and excise taxes. The middle 20 percent paid 4.2 percent of their income in such taxes. The richest 1 percent (the people who’ll gain the most by the income tax cut) paid 0.9 percent in sales and excise taxes.

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