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, create opportunities for international trade, and provide incentives for new technology businesses to locate here.
While Washington D.C. struggles and literally faces a potential shut down – the Missouri House continues to work to improve our state’s job climate.
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 [SB19] 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.
Next, we advanced a proposal [HB840] to create a trade hub at Lambert Airport in St. Louis. Our proposal would provide tax incentives to freight haulers who used the airport in international trade.
This proposal is essential to create an international marketplace in Missouri and a demand for our products internationally. The creation of this market will bring new jobs and new investment to our state.
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is not being fully utilized and is capable of becoming a hub for international trade routes. The amount of economic activity generated by these trade routes will be immense.
Finally we perfected another economic incentives bill to bring new high-tech companies to Missouri. HB 468 provisions to create the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act, or MOSIRA, and attract data center businesses to our state.
By offering incentives for science and technology corporations to locate in Missouri many new jobs will be created around the state, not just in these fields, but in other industries with goods or services that support the science and technology corporations.
The field of science and innovation technology is growing rapidly and competition among states to attract this corporation is intense. Missouri needs these programs and incentives to move ahead.
This session continues to be centered on job creation. It is our goal to turn around the economic climate of this state, people who want to work should have the opportunity to get good jobs – the best way we can do this is to bring more good jobs to this state.
We can turn this economy around, together.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve here in the House of Representatives. As always, I welcome your comments. You may reach me at 573-751-1488, send your e-mails to steven{dot}tilley{at}house{dot}mo{dot}gov or write to me at the Missouri House of Representatives, State Capitol, Room 308, Jefferson City, MO 65101.
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