"Here’s the Bottom Line: 15 Percent. On Darn Near Everything. For a Pipe Dream."

A great editorial in the Post-Dispatch today:

Missourians now have a realistic estimate of what it would cost to replace the state’s individual and corporate income taxes with higher and broader sales taxes: at least 12.25 cents on the dollar. Add average local sales taxes of 2.75 percent, and Missourians would pay 15 cents on the dollar...

[N]one of the various consumption tax proposals filed — either as bills in the Legislature or as initiative petitions — account for the cost of the prebates. The low-end estimate for that is around $2 billion a year. Mr. Moody accepts $3 billion as more realistic.

“The proponents would leave you to believe that you can have a reduced tax base, a relatively low and capped tax rate and a prebate fully funded,” [Mr. James R. Moody, the budget director and director of the Office of Administration for Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft] writes. “That notion, however, is pure fantasy, and a basic ‘bait and switch’ tactic.”

Here’s the bottom line: 15 percent. On darn near everything. For a pipe dream.