(This article comes courtesy of MissouriNet via Mathew Pilger.)
Missouri House Democratic Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, is publicly criticizing members of her own party in the State Senate after Republicans narrowly pushed through a proposal that would eliminate the state income tax and expand sales taxes.
The Missouri Senate passed House Joint Resolution 173 last week on an 18–11 vote, sending it back to the House for consideration as early as this week. Aune said she was disappointed most Senate Democrats chose not to speak during the floor debate on what she described as one of the most significant tax proposals facing Missouri voters.
“I can’t imagine a scenario in which I would sit down on the largest proposal to raise taxes for Missourians,” Aune said, adding she expected a more vocal and prolonged fight against the plan.
Aune said lawmakers should have used the opportunity to publicly explain why they believe the proposal would shift the tax burden onto working families, calling silence during debate a missed opportunity to inform the public.
The measure passed with eight Democrats voting against it, joined by three Republicans who also opposed the plan and spoke against it during debate.
Senate Democratic Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, defended his caucus’s approach, saying Democrats made a strategic decision during the Senate debate. Beck said Democrats believed allowing Republican opponents to take the lead would show bipartisan resistance to the proposal.
“We’ve been telling everybody what this will do for five months,” Beck said. “We thought it was more important that Republican senators like Lincoln Hough, Mike Moon and Joe Nicola speak their piece to let everybody know that it’s okay to be against a bad idea.”
Beck said Democrats spent much of the day holding the floor on other legislation and felt their concerns about the tax plan were already well known. He said the caucus remained unified in opposing the proposal, even if their tactics differed.
If the Missouri House approves the resolution as-is, voters could ultimately decide the future of the state’s income tax in a statewide election later this year.
