A definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
State Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford has proven she is far from crazy, and she is again pressing for House Bill 637—the sanest thing that could possibly come out of Jefferson City in 2011.
The bill has little or no chance of receiving even a hearing. Its downfalls are that it makes too much sense and helps too many people.
Mott Oxford's bill would update an archaic tax system that has not changed in Missouri since 1931.
Yep, we're still doing the same thing tax-wise that we were doing 80 years ago.
Wealthy Missourians are the big winners in this time-stands-still foolishness, yet lower and moderate income voters in rural Missouri will most likely have no part of changing this folly.
According to a recent report by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, Missouri's tax structure is one of America's most favorable for the wealthy.
The report concludes that a Missouri family that makes less than $17,000 pays 9.6 percent in state and local taxes. A middle-income family earning between $31,000 and $50,000 pays 9.5 percent in state and local taxes. Meanwhile, the richest of Missourians, those that make average incomes of nearly $1.2 million are asked to kick in just 6.6 percent in taxes.
Ameren president and CEO Thomas Voss, for instance, made $4.7 million last year, including a $1 million bonus. He paid more in taxes than I did, but the percentage he paid was less. That really makes no sense—but what does make sense in Missouri these days? The state's top tax bracket begins at $9,000; if you convert that amount to its value in 1931, then it would be about $125,000. But it's not 1931!
Mott Oxford's “Tax Justice for a Healthy Missouri Plan” has been filed in the past and been ignored by most of her fellow state legislators, though it would actually raise the state's tax revenue while reducing taxes for most Missourians.
By updating the state's 80-year-old tax brackets, as many as 60 percent of taxpayers would see taxes reduced. That 60 percent would come from the bottom up. But here's the catch: The wealthiest 20 percent of our state's residents would see the taxable percentage of their incomes go up—and match what the bottom 80 percent have been paying for eight decades.
How does an additional $1.3 billion in revenue sound in these tough economic times?
Even if this long overdue tax-structure change could reach a statewide ballot, though, it would have a tough time becoming law. Many Missourians cling to the notion that helping rich people is a way of helping themselves—even if they are far from affluent. They would vote against their own best interest in support of "trickle-down economics."
Let's just hope Mott Oxford keeps banging her head against the wall. She's not crazy. She just knows that somewhere, at some point in time, a wall fell down before a skull got crushed.
