The other evening I wore a pair of the new shorts to dinner with a friend. As soon as I sat down in the restaurant booth, all the coins in my pocket slid out. I saved the quarters but I donated about 20¢ to the seat cushions.
Missouri’s Fiscal Year ends on Sunday, June 30. The state budget passed in May 2018 required net General Revenue growth of a measly 1.7%.
Per the daily General Revenue Report [ click on Current General Revenue Report on right column ] for Thursday, June 27, 2019, Missouri’s Year To Date Net General Revenue collected is less than 1% ahead of last year, or, just over half what the state needs.
Yes, the state collected $9,508,082,586.54 from July 1, 2018 through the close of business on Thursday. That’s a lot of money. It’s just not enough to meet the state’s General Revenue needs.
Plus, many tax refunds still need to be paid. As a state official recently told veteran Capitol reporter Bob Watson, “Each year, the department issues a significant number of refunds during July and August.”
It gets worse.
Remember, in January 2019 Missouri’s minimum wage jumped to $8.60 per hour. And, nationwide wages grew by 3% in the past year. Therefore, Missouri’s Individual Income Tax revenue ought to be up, I guess around 4%.
Per that daily report, income tax collected for the state is 1.11% below what Missouri got last year. Since Individual Income Tax represents around 80% of Missouri’s total General Revenue, well, when income tax collections drop the state can’t recover.
Of course, Missouri’s legislature created this artificially starved government. As required by law, State Auditor Nicole Galloway reviewed state revenue under the terms of the Hancock Amendment (which limits annual state revenue). At the end of last Fiscal Year, Missouri stood $3.9 billion below the Hancock ‘lid.’ And, even under those restrictive terms of Article X of the state constitution, Missouri could have increased revenue by $102.9 million last year by mere legislative action.
In other words, Republicans running Missouri government are deliberately starving government services more than is necessary. They could easily, legally raise taxes in $100 million chunks to increase state worker salaries and give programs and schools the money they need. That won’t happen.
Instead, well, imagine Governor Mike Parson sticking his hand into seat cushions around the Capitol all day today, looking for dimes and pennies to increase that Fiscal Year Revenue total.
Glenn Koenen