Chris Kelly

Originally posted at ProgressMissouri.org

Senate Appropriations Chair Kurt Schaefer and Representative Chris Kelly this morning told Rex Sinquefield directly that they oppose his radical Everything Tax ballot initiatives.  The two members of the General Assembly were the headline speakers at a Show-Me Institute event in Columbia moderated by Sinquefield himself.

“It scares the bejesus out of me what's going to happen if we phase into this and we have a substantial dip in general revenue,” said Senator Schaefer, who also said he was “intrigued” by the concept of a higher sales tax, in general. But “I'm very concerned about what happens when it phases in, especially during the phase in, and whether or not we have a substantial dip in general revenue because we cannot take it right now.”

The Everything Tax “cannot pass and...is bad for the state of Missouri,” said Representative Kelly. “It's bad for the state of Missouri because it would produce less revenue and because it moves the burden so substantially downward.”  

America should be more like Russia, and small-minded House Republicans know more about road safety than auto insurers and the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Listen to Zach Wyatt's exchange with Rep. Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) about Jerry Nolte's (R-Chamber of Commerce) xenophobic legislation, recorded on the House floor earlier today:

The Missourian takes a look today at Rep. Chris Kelly's (D-Columbia) proposal (HB152) to lower the state's income tax, eliminate the corporate income tax and hike the state sales tax.  Kelly's bill is a little different than Republican proposals or Rex Sinquefield's initiative petitions, but Kelly has been a supporter of "fair tax" ideas in general for some time now.  

Kelly and I aren't going to see eye to eye on the wisdom of embarking on  this sort of "great experiment" in tax policy (his words), but I want to take issue with one point he makes in the article. According to Kelly, there is "no current data to determine how much revenue will be gained or lost if a sales tax is used instead of an income tax." While it's true there isn't a fiscal note for his HB152, researchers inside and outside the Capitol have been looking at this very question for some time now.  For instance: 

• The Joint Committee on Tax Policy evaluated a Senate "fair tax" proposal last year, and found that the state sales tax rate would have to be 7.56%-7.94% to be revenue neutral, and at least 10% if the state created a rebate/prebate program.  This was reported by the News-Leader's Rosean Moring as recently as December 18, and the Committee's analysis can be read here.
   
• Research conducted by the Missouri Budget Project and Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy determined that the sales tax rate with a prebate program would need to be close to 11% to be revenue neutral.  Their study, published in February 2010, may be found here, and you can read testimony from the ITEP submitted to the Senate in January 2010  here.
   
• The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities issued a report in September stating that Missouri would have to raise its sales tax rate to 11 percent or more under the 2010 proposals to replace lost revenue from the personal and corporate income taxes and franchise taxes.

More from The Party of Personal Responsibility and Self-Righteous Budget Hawks:

House Budget Chairman Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, has said he isn’t concerned that the budget is out of balance at this point. What matters, he said, is what is in the bills when they’re sent to Nixon.

[Rep. Chris Kelly (D-Columbia)] thinks otherwise. “Before it leaves the House, it ought to balance,” Kelly said. "It’s not an answer to let the Senate do it or let the governor do it. I have an obligation to fulfill my oath of office, regardless of what the governor or Senate does."

I really don't understand this argument from UM System President Gary Forsee (also articulated last week by Rep. Chris Kelly):

[Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry] Waxman’s rebuttal was "in some ways" beside the point, Forsee said Monday. His letter was intended to convey the message that a cash-strapped public university system would be hard pressed to handle new unfunded energy mandates — whatever the costs...

For all the fuss his letter stirred up, Forsee may have partly accomplished his goal. The university system now has Waxman’s written assurance that its power plant in Columbia isn’t a “covered entity” under the legislation. That sounds a lot like the exemption Forsee was seeking.

The factual problems with his letter are not beside the point.  Unless I'm missing something, Forsee didn't secure an exemption with his letter – the exemption existed all along, and he just didn't know what he was talking about.

Imagine Forsee wrote a letter to Congress expressing concern about the Martians living in his brain.  If he's politely informed that there aren't actually Martians inside his skull, his letter would not be hailed as an "incredible success" -– it would still have been a silly letter. 

So news broke on Friday that Scott Eckersley's wrongful termination suit had been settled. Defendants Matt Blunt, Ed Martin and three other former staffers finally settled the suit, but only after it cost the state $2 million to resolve. After such a long, embarrassing ordeal, you might think that Ed would lay low for a little while.

You would be wrong.

Why lay low when you can get your name in the paper for a major non-event like writing a letter?

Strap back in:

A proposal to expand health-care coverage for poor Missourians went down in flames on Wednesday, but a novel alternative may yet rise from its ashes.

The Missouri House rejected a spending bill that would have added nearly 35,000 parents to the state’s Medicaid system. But after that defeat, a committee of House and Senate lawmakers worked out a deal to keep the funds financing the expansion — $146.8 million — in the budget for a new, as-yet-unwritten plan that Democrats and Republicans alike could support...

The committee’s arrangement allows the budget to proceed and buys lawmakers another week to work out a health-care plan in a separate bill. The General Assembly adjourns for the year on May 15.

As of last night (or very early this morning), the House is planning to consider SB306 on Monday, and focus on a smaller number of currently-uninsured adults.

I'm done predicting what will seem reasonable to House Republicans. Previous support from allies in the Republican Senate, Missouri Hospital Association, Chambers of Commerce and the Associated Industries of Missouri didn't seem to matter, but maybe House Republicans are now comfortable appropriating $150 million for a still undefined step towards socialist doom. Who knows? 

The full Democratic House Caucus just concluded a press conference on the steps of the Capitol, standing together in opposition to the House Republicans' defeat of HB11.

“The ridiculousness of the House Republican position is exceeded only by its cruelty,” said Minority Leader Paul LeVota (D-Independence). “We had a rare opportunity to restore health coverage to 35,000 hard-working Missourians at no cost to state taxpayers. The majority instead tightened its grip around the same failed policies that have made health care less accessible and less affordable.”

“Associated Industries of Missouri, the state Chamber of Commerce, the Missouri Hospital Association and Senate Republicans all know this is a good idea,” said state Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia and the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “Business groups understand the economic reality: If their workers are too ill to make it work, Missouri businesses don’t make money.”

The full release from the Minority Caucus is below the fold.

Contrary to earlier reports, GOP Representatives Allen Icet, Rick Stream and David Sater refused to since the conference committee report for House Bill 11, the budget bill for the Department of Social Services. The report was approved by a 7-3 vote.

Senators of both parties signed on the report -- Sens. Gary Nodler, Robert Mayer, Joan Bray, Timothy Green and Scott Rupp all support the compromise HB11. Democratic Representatives Chris Kelly and Kiki Curls also signed the report.