Legislators talk income tax, petitions, water rights at Cape chamber event

Local elected officials provided legislative reports at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business Advocacy Coffee event Friday, Jan. 31.

Several dozen people attended the meeting at the Osage Centre, 1625 N. Kingshighway. Cape Girardeau Chamber president Rob Gilligan said it was likely the largest crowd assembled for such an event.

District 27 state Sen. Jamie Burger, District 146 state Rep. Barry Hovis and District 147 state Rep. John Voss presented their goals for the new legislative session and their thoughts on newly elected Gov. Mike Kehoe’s agenda. They also answered questions from the audience.

Burger had previously served as a representative before being elected to the Senate in 2024.

“Is it what I expected? It is, and maybe then some more. I’m not complaining. To me, it’s been continuous, continuous, continuous, but people want to see us get something accomplished in the Senate. They want to see us get something accomplished in Missouri,” he said.

Burger said he presented bills to protect election workers and enforce the state’s water rights.

Hovis said he submitted more than a dozen bills, including lowering the amount of time for the state to carry out death sentences. He said it can currently take more than a decade for inmates sentenced to death to be executed.

“I personally, whether you agree with it or not, think if you’re going to do justice, especially if it's a heinous crime … it needs to be over with within three to four years,” he said.

He said he is also working to improve the City of Delta’s water system.

Voss discussed sponsoring a bill to require higher criteria for coroners to be elected.

“It’s so important when we elect people to public office that they’re competent and qualified to do the job that you've entrusted to them. Right now, to be a coroner, you have to be 21, a citizen of the United States, live in the state for a year and live in your county for six months. I think I’d like to have a little more qualifications on somebody that has to perform such crucial roles that we’re counting on them for that,” he said.

His bill would increase coroners’ salaries and require that they be certified to investigate deaths. Voss also introduced a bill to add a third judge to the Missouri 32nd Judicial Circuit Court, which serves Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Perry counties.

State of the state

The legislators discussed some of their takeaways from newly sworn in Gov. Mike Kehoe’s first State of the State address Tuesday, Jan. 28.

Voss said he appreciated the governor’s proposals to retain and attract law enforcement officers. Hovis said he was supportive of the governor planning to build a crime lab in Cape Girardeau.

Burger said he liked Kehoe’s proposals to end state income tax.

Policy questions

Chamber president Gilligan asked the legislators to provide their opinions on certain policy measures, such as Proposition A. This measure, approved by voters in 2024, will see the state’s minimum wage rise to $15 an hour by 2026.

None of the legislators were completely supportive of it. Voss said he viewed minimum wage as a price control that distorts the market. Burger said the proposition contained several flaws. Hovis said it passes costs onto consumers and that many business owners cannot afford to raise wages.

When asked about how to deal with the state’s budget for the next few years, Burger said he wanted to bring more workers and resources to the region, such as by specializing in air traffic control programs at Southeast Missouri State University.

Hovis also approved of expanding infrastructure in the region.

Voss said the state’s net general revenue was down some $160 million from last year to about $13 billion. Much of the budget is federally funded, however, and he said the state will have to carry its own weight when the funding dries up.

Audience questions

In the latter portion of the hourlong event, audience members could ask the legislators their own queries. The first of these related to bills filed to modify the state’s initiative petition process.

Voss said some of the proposed changes would see initiatives needing a majority of the popular vote statewide and in the majority of congressional districts in order to become law.

“So many times it feels like rural Missouri, we’re a flea on the tail of a dog relative to some of the urban and suburban areas … so we will address those and I think they’ll come before one of the two committees I’m on, elections or local government,” he said.

Hovis said bills to change the process have died every year he has been in office.

“… People on the Republican side that are lobbyists and people on the Democratic side have found out that what they can’t get through the Legislature, the easiest thing for them to do is put 5, 10, 15 million dollars in a project, write them all how it benefits them the greatest, then they bring it up on the ballot there,” he said.

Many states don’t allow petitions, he said, and of those that do only a handful currently require just a majority popular vote to pass.

In response to a different question, Burger expanded on his efforts to keep water in the state. Right now, he said there are no provisions to shipping it to other states, and he wants to add some to Missouri’s laws.

“If Bill Gates, who is the largest landowner in Louisiana, wanted to put a pipe from Southeast Missouri to Louisiana and ship water, we couldn't stop him. He’d pump us dry. You have a coalition of western states … who want to take our water and send it west. They’d like to see Missouri water coming out of California fire hydrants. I don't want to see that. I’m trying to preserve our water,” he said.

Hovis said Missourians often take their water for granted, with the state sitting on some of the world’s largest underground aquifers. He said the state wouldn’t have enough water for crops if other states started pumping it.

Another audience member asked about alternative revenue sources if the state does away with income taxes. Voss said two-thirds of Missouri’s general revenue comes from those, with another 20% or so from sales and use tax.

“What I think we’re seeing is a desire to move away from a tax on production to a tax on consumption,” he said.

He added he was concerned about capping revenue with no way to adjust for inflation and thought it would take some time to find a responsible way to roll the proposals out.