From Missouri Digital News: https://mdn.org
MDN Menu

MDN Home

Journalist's Creed

Print

MDN Help

 MDN.ORG: Missouri Digital News
MDN Menu

MDN Home

Journalist's Creed

Print

MDN Help

 MDN.ORG Mo. Digital News Missouri Digital News MDN.ORG: Mo. Digital News MDN.ORG: Missouri Digital News
Help  

Tax Cuts in Senate Limbo

May 14, 1996
By: Jack Dolan
State Capital Bureau

The sales tax cut on groceries is still in legislative limbo, and the clock is winding down. From Jefferson City, I'm Jack Dolan.

Story:
RunTime:
OutCue: SOC

As it stands, there are several fates possible for the sales tax cut on groceries. In one scenario, it could be lowered from just over four cents per dollar to just over two cents per dollar. In another, it could be attached to a greater tax break for people with children, and a tax break for people living off of private retirement pensions. Or, it could die altogether. In that case, Missouri's income tax payers would be in for about a 150 million dollar tax refund. Jim Mathewson from Sedalia, who controls the tax cut's fate in the Senate, says the issue is too complicated to predict which of these scenarios will shakeout by Friday, the end of the legislative session. Sen. Mathewson:

Actuality:
RunTime:
OutCue: ...one tree in five thousand.
Contents: Mathewson says, "It's kinda like a duck, you wake up in a new world every few minutes. And as this place enters the last minutes of the session--things move, things stop. To plan a given time for any issue is like going off in the wilderness and finding one tree in five thousand."

If you're struggling to understand what bewildered ducks and nondescript trees have to do with tax cuts, you've got a good handle on what it's like to be a legislator with three days left in the session. From Jefferson City, I'm Jack Dolan.