Tax-cut bill axed in veto session

Missouri legislators produced a record-breaking veto session but Republican lawmakers failed to exercise the power of their super-majority status on two highly publicized issues. Now, the head of Missouri State University’s political science department says the speaker of the House could pay for the legislature’s failure to secure an override of Gov. Jay Nixon’s tax-cut legislation veto.

George Connor, director of MSU’s political science department, said Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, might lose his post next year after failing to garner a consensus among Republicans on House Bill 253 during the Sept. 11 veto session in Jefferson City.

“This could have some effect on Jones, who has said he is in the running for attorney general,” Connor said.

He said Republicans failed to meet the 109-vote override threshold in the House because of a couple of factors. One, he said Jones has rubbed some representatives the wrong way with committee appointments, and two, the override attempt met pressure from school board groups and business groups such as the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce who supported Nixon’s veto.

“I think as soon as some saw the bill wasn’t going to pass, they said, ‘I’m not going to vote that way’,” Connor said, adding he believed had the override passed in the House, the Senate had the numbers to follow suit.

In all, Connor said Republicans successfully overcame Nixon’s 2013 session vetoes 10 times on Sept. 11, besting the most previous overrides by seven since a two-thirds majority has been required. In 2003, Gov. Bob Holden had three bills overridden, now the second most in the modern era, according to Connor.

The Missouri Senate requires 23 votes to override a veto, while the House requires 109. There are 109 House Republicans in office, and 24 Senate Republicans, giving conservatives a super-majority in both chambers.

HB 253 would have cut in half the corporate income tax rate during the next decade to 3.25 percent from 6.25 percent, and dropped the individual income tax rate to 5.5 percent from 6 percent between 2014 and 2018. The bill included incremental reductions during a 10-year period and only in years following a tax revenue increase of at least $100 million.

Following the votes, Nixon recognized those who supported his veto.

“I applaud the legislators from both parties who came together to sustain my veto of this fiscally irresponsible bill, which would have defunded our schools and weakened our economy,” Nixon said in a Sept. 11 news release. “Today’s vote represents a defining moment for our state and a victory for all Missourians.”

Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Dan Mehan said he was disappointed lawmakers didn’t come together to reduce taxes for businesses and workers. The chamber, with the support of St. Louis political activist and businessman Rex Sinquefield, spent more than $200,000 in a statewide marketing campaign calling for an override of HB 253.

“The Missouri chamber believes Missouri can support Missouri workers, job creators and education. Missouri does not have to be for one or for the other. That narrow mindset has to end if we are going to move our state forward,” Mehan said in a separate release.

Connor said the state chamber of commerce might have miscalculated when it sponsored a late-August event that gave Texas Gov. Rick Perry a chance to meet business leaders in St. Louis. Perry, in coordination with his visit, ran TV and radio ads across the state asking business owners to bring jobs to Texas if Missouri’s tax-cut legislation failed to become law after the veto session.

“Gov. Perry didn’t help anything,” Connor said.

House Bill 436 also suffered a notable defeat during the veto session. The bill received media attention statewide in the days prior to the session, as the Missouri Press Association publicized that the bill, designed to reject all federal acts that infringe on a Missouri resident’s rights under the Second Amendment, also had the side effect of not allowing the press to publish any gun owners’ names. The MPA Board of Governors voted on Sept. 5 at its annual meeting to seek injunctive relief and a court determination on the constitutionality of provisions within the bill in the event the override effort was successful. The bill, however, failed by one vote – 22 to 12 – in the Senate.

Although Nixon can claim temporary victories for the defeat of HB 253 and 436, Connor said he fully expects a tax-cut measure to be reintroduced in 2014. Republicans, he said, are still running the show.

“In many ways, all they have done is kick the can down the road,” Connor said. “The players haven’t changed.”[[In-content Ad]]