The Missouri Senate voted Monday to pass a collection of House bills that would allow taxpayers to exempt 100 percent of money made from the sale of stocks and other assets from their income taxes. This vote came just hours after a Senate committee moved the bills to the full Senate.
The state Department of Revenue’s fiscal note estimates this would decrease state revenue by approximately $235 million annually, but some data from the IRS suggests that may be an undercalculation.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern (D-Kansas City) said such reductions to state funds are worrying.
“I have very great concerns about how we continue to reduce state revenue and the impact that that’s going to have moving forward,” Nurrenbern said.
Jeani Hancock from the Department of Revenue said the department’s numbers came directly from 2022 tax returns.
“We actually pull every person’s returns in our model and we run them and we pull out exactly what was claimed,” Hancock said.
The passage of this bill is a step toward some lawmakers’ eventual goal of eliminating Missouri’s income tax entirely.
A bill that would freeze the minimum wage increase at $15 per hour and remove mandated sick leave that voters approved in November was also advanced by the same Senate committee Monday.
Proposition A, approved by voters in November, mandates that employers offer paid sick leave and increases Missouri’s minimum wage to $15 an hour next year. The bill would undo the paid sick leave provision and remove future cost of living increases to the minimum wage.
