Property owners and apartment dwellers with incomes below $7,000 should beat a path to the polls April 7 to vote for the State referendum on Senate Bill No. 1.
The bill, which would revise the Missouri corporation and individual incomes taxes, would provide the funds the state needs to substantially increase state support of public schools as well as providing aid to mental health hospitals, higher education and other vital services.
The bill is a tax reform that will reduce the burden on lower income groups and increase it for those who are better able to pay more, such as higher income groups and corporations.
Approximately 90 per cent of all retired people in Missouri would be removed from the tax rolls. Some in the low income groups who are now paying taxes will actually pay none (see chart for where you stand).
The bill will equalize Missouri tax laws, plug many loopholes and bring Missouri standard deductions in line with federal deductions. To those with dependents (a large percentage of our residents) the new law will enable them to claim a much larger deduction than under the old rates.
Presently Missourians can claim a standard deduction of five per cent of $500 whichever is smaller. Under the new bill, Missourians could claim 10 per cent or $1000 whichever is smaller. Furthermore, the bill automatically ties these deductions to the federal rates. This means that when the new federal rates take full effect in 1973, the state standard deduction for everyone will jump to 15 per cent or $2000.
The 70 million dollars which the state claims it needs would be financed by the increased taxes corporations and individuals in the higher brackets would be paying.
To the St. Louis public schools and public schools around the state, the bill means that the state will at last be able to make good its premise to provide 50 per cent of the current operating costs on a statewide basis. To the St. Louis public schools the money will mean the equivalent of a 30 cent tax increase over a four-year period. Therefore, all property owners, whether or not they will be paying an increase, should consider the bill a cheap and much more equitable way of financing public schools than the unfair burden on the property tax. It’s about time the state took some of the load off the local property owner in the financing of the schools.
