Dugger: Redistricting,

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!” Ronald Reagan.

Redistricting

Every ten years, when the Census data comes in, the Missouri Legislature is tasked with redrawing the voting districts for our United States Representatives. Unfortunately, this year Missouri’s population did not grow as fast as the rest of the country, and we lost a congressional seat, taking us from 9 to 8.

With this reduction in seats, one member of our congressional delegation will literally lose their seat. With nine current members of Congress, and eight districts, a tough choice had to be made.

As part of this process, the House Redistricting Committee has spent the past month traveling around the state holding hearings. Citizens were invited to testify concerning how they wanted to be represented in the new districts, who should be included, and what the districts should look like on the map.

Additionally, Missouri’s Constitution requires that districts be drawn so as to be “contiguous and compact.” This means that have to be mostly contained within the same spot on the map – that they shouldn’t look like spider webs, snakes, or blobs on a map in what is referred to as gerrymandering.

For a look at our map, you can visit:
http://monewshorizonblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screen-shot-2011-03-31-at-7.10.58-AM.png

Redistricting is a long process, and the map may look different than this when everything is said and done.

Jobs and Economy

This week was very busy for the House, as several bills we have been working on to create new Jobs in Missouri were passed out of our chamber. We advanced legislation to eliminate burdensome taxes [SB19], create opportunities for international trade [HB840], and provide incentives for new technology businesses to locate here [HB 468].

One of the issues we addressed pertains to the franchise tax. The franchise tax is a tax that corporations pay in advance for doing business within the state. It is not a tax on franchisees. When corporations are looking at where to locate their businesses, State’s franchise taxes are something they consider.

Currently, Missouri businesses are taxed both on their income and the value of their assets and stock. This would be like getting taxed on your yearly income, and additionally on all the income you’ve made your entire life.

The bill we sent to the Governor would phase out this tax over a period of five years, making Missouri a very attractive state for businesses to locate.

Missouri only collects about 3% of its revenue from corporate taxes of any kind [Source: http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=21375] and the franchise tax is only part of this collection. This tax cut will help attract more businesses to open, expand, or relocate to Missouri. We can create more jobs by allowing businesses to flourish than we ever could by raising taxes.

In the next fiscal year the franchise tax cut is expected to save Missouri businesses $16,554,054 [Source: http://www.moga.mo.gov/Oversight/OVER11/fishtm/0336-02P.ORG.htm] - that is a lot of jobs. The year after that, it would save Missouri businesses upwards of $35,000,000. By the time the franchise tax is completely phased-out in five years, Missouri businesses will be saving around $85,000,000 a year. That is 850 new $100,000 jobs that could be created, or 1,700 new $50,000 jobs.

It is a pleasure to serve you, If there is anything me or my staff can do to assist you please give us a call.