Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be in Missouri later this month to talk tax policy.
Grow Missouri, a coalition that has launched a television and radio ad campaign in support of an income tax cut here, announced today that Perry is slated to speak at a public event at the Double Tree Hotel in Chesterfield on Aug. 29.
Perry, who recently sought the Republican nomination for president, often touts his stateβs tax policies.
Texas has no state income tax, and Republicans have been increasingly turning to it as a model for tax reform elsewhere. Supporters say the Texas-style tax policy is fueling economic growth, while opponents say it disproportionately affects poor people.
The Texas Tribune noted in a story on the trend earlier this year that βthe stateβs tax system is not universally beloved.β
βAlthough few are calling for Texas to impose its own income tax, the way the state employs property, sales and business taxes to finance services, particularly education, draws criticism and debate across the political spectrum,β the non-profit news organization wrote.
Missouri's Republican legislative leaders are in a heated battle to lower the stateβs income tax for the first time in nearly a century. The GOP-controlled Legislature passed tax legislation earlier this year, but Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, vetoed the bill. Nixon has taken issue with several provisions of the bill, which he says is poorly drafted. According to Nixon, the legislation will actually increase taxes on prescription drugs and textbooks and limit funding for education and other state programs.
Lawmakers will have a chance to override his veto next month, but the numbers are tight and even supporters of the effort acknowledge that it will be a challenge to get the two-thirds majority vote needed in the state House for a successful override.
