The St. Louis Blues, thanks to a great run in mid-winter, jumped from the bottom to the top of their NHL division. A few months later they drank beer out of the Stanley Cup.
More recently, since the All Star break the St. Louis Cardinals won their way to the top of their division.
A nice lady asked me what the state of Missouri could do to get back in the game. I thought, then thought some more.
Sorry, I told her, Missourians can expect another decade or more stuck in the cellar as the 45th or 46th or 50th state.
Two core problems…
First, thanks to Article X of the Missouri Constitution (aka Hancock), it only takes 101 irresponsible people to cut taxes in Missouri – 82 state representatives, 18 senators and one pliant governor. And, therefore, every year numerous Republicans propose cutting state taxes more, even though Missouri now stands almost $4 billion below what Article X allows the state to collect.
To raise taxes significantly requires around 1.4 million Missourians to vote to increase their tax bill. [Based on the 2016 presidential tally in Missouri of 2.8 million votes cast]
That’s a high bar, especially since Missourians as a group keep losing economic ground. A few years back the median Missouri family income ran about $100 a week below the national median. Census data from 2017 found Missouri slipped to around $121 a week below the national median, and, I expect 2018 data (due this fall) to put Missouri $125 a week down.
In more recent bad news, Missouri ended the fiscal year on June 30th with individual income tax collections 1.1% below the miserly total for the previous fiscal year. That’s especially sad since every minimum wage worker in Missouri got a pay raise on 1/1/19, meaning they owed more in income tax.
So, asking struggling people to raise their taxes remains a hard sell.
Without more money for roads, education, medical care, and a thousand other critical things it’s hard to move Missouri forward. Yet, trends point to less money available to pay for state services (and employees) in coming years due to already-passed tax cuts and that economic slide.
Second, too many Missourians now accept crappy, Republican government.
Remember, this state gave 1,594,511 votes to Donald Trump.
True, the majority party won a great edge with the district maps after the 2010 census. Still, read rural Missouri newspapers or talk to typical Dollar General shoppers outstate and, well, being anti-abortion and pro-gun means more than decent roads and schools with textbooks from this century.
That “rural is best” mentality has been firmly embraced by the accidental governor. Remember, after a national search the best person to run MO HealthNet turned out to be a Poplar Bluff lawyer and former state House Speaker. Missouri’s current Treasurer hails from Cassville (and wears stripes with plaid in his official website photo). You get the idea.
The end result? Turning Missouri around requires more well spent tax money and determination to do better. Right now we lack both.
I know, I’m a “glass half empty” kind of guy. Still, I know that Missouri can – slowly, very slowly – turn itself around. I hope that starts to happen after next year’s elections and yet another year of economic malaise. Getting to the top of the division will take a very long time.
Glenn Koenen