Governor Mike Kehoe visited the University of Missouri Wednesday to meet with students, faculty and staff to discuss new technological developments in agriculture.
These developments include virtual livestock fencing, which researchers from Mizzou’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture presented after the discussion.
Kehoe said the workforce needs students who can market and develop new agricultural technology and methods, and that technological developments such as these are key to agricultural production.
“That’s what technology is going to do to agriculture,” Kehoe said. “And in the U.S., I believe we’re in a prime position to capitalize on that and maximize production.”
Even though the visit was focused on agricultural developments, the state income tax became a topic of conversation between Kehoe and the ag students. That’s because the state income tax, which Kehoe wants to eliminate, currently funds K-12 education.
“You were talking about eliminating the state income tax, and obviously that would be huge for Missourians, but also has a lot of impacts on different government programs,” said Bailey Schneider, a junior studying agriculture education during the Q&A session.
Kehoe said his proposal would not eliminate the $9 million that currently comes from the state income tax, but would instead be funded by updating the current sales tax code to avoid disrupting funding for essential services such as education.
He said the new taxing structure would be phased in over the next four or five years in order to avoid disrupting funding for essential services such as education. Missourians can vote on the tax proposal in November if the legislation passes.
Currently, K-12 education has been given $4.3 billion in state funding, a record high for the state. Kehoe said he holds school districts accountable for using this funding to prepare students to enter the workforce or higher education.
“We need to make sure that our 520 public school districts understand that that’s the responsibility,” Kehoe said. “If we’re giving them record funding, they have to have those kids ready.”
Kehoe also examined the issue of rising input costs during the discussion. He said focus should be shifted to domestic consumption so that commodity costs can rise and balance out those higher input costs.
“Domestic consumption — and for Missouri producers, Missouri consumption — is absolutely the number one thing we got to make sure we’re not missing,” Kehoe said.
Other topics mentioned were Kehoe’s participation in the Rural Revival Task Force, removing unnecessary government regulations on farmers and other strategies that focus on benefitting local agriculture.
