Senator Bill Eigel’s major personal property tax cut bill, Senate Bill 8, was heard last week in the Missouri Senate Economic Development and Tax Policy Committee.
“Hopefully this is gonna be the year where the attention of the public is higher than ever, that we can finally get something done and bring a little bit of tax relief to the people of the state,” Eigel said.
Missouri is one of just 21 states that still charges citizens each year just for owning a car, and does so in spite of record revenues already going to the local jurisdictions benefitting from the tax. But that did not stop a series of testimony at the hearing from government officials concerned about the idea of Missourians keeping more of their money.
Predictably, taxing jurisdictions from around Missouri came forward to lament the possible loss of a revenue stream that 29 other states have already eliminated the tax.
“I don’t expect government to ever be on board with cutting it’s own revenue streams—so it’s a good thing I work for the People and not government bureaucracy,” Eigel explained. “Lots of these taxing entities are talking about rising costs—BUT even adjusted for inflation which accounts for that, these same taxing subdivisions are still taking in a record amount of taxpayer money. It’s time to give the People a break.”
Eigel urged other committee members to consider that “Senate Bill 8 is not a discussion about whether or not we should continue funding the services that are currently receiving revenue from personal property tax.”
He instead pointed out that Senate Bill 8 is about dealing with “a burden on our most vulnerable households; our working and middle-class income households.”
The next step in the process is to determine a version of the tax cut that can successfully be voted out of the committee and head to the Missouri Senate floor.
Stay up to date on all the updates concerning Senate Bill 8 at www.billeigel.com.
Let’s GO Missouri!!