Local Realtors push for taxpayer-protection amendment

Services from dry cleaning to real estate would be exempt from future sales or use taxes if Missouri voters approve constitutional Amendment 4 on Nov. 8, local supporters said Tuesday.

The Cape Girardeau County Board of Realtors held the campaign event, which drew about 50 members to the Concourse Conference Center in Cape Girardeau, where yard signs promoting passage of the measure were distributed.

The 20,000-member Missouri Association of Realtors is leading a coalition of professional and trade groups pushing for passage of the constitutional amendment. If approved by voters, state and local governments would be barred from imposing any sales or use tax on any service or activity that was not subject to such a tax as of Jan. 1, 2015.

Local real-estate agent and pastor Jeff Long said he favors the measure because he doesn’t want to see state or local government levy new sales taxes.

“For me, it is a regressive tax,” he said. “It will hurt those who are least able to pay.”

Long added, “I see it as a stealth tax.”

Missouri ranks near the bottom among states in terms of economic development, Long said. If the state imposed sales taxes on services in the future, it would hurt Missouri’s economy even more, he said.

“Why make ourselves more uncompetitive with other states?” he said.

Long said he doesn’t trust state lawmakers to refrain from taxing services.

Longtime political consultant and Cape Girardeau native David Barklage urged members of the Cape Girardeau County Board of Realtors to campaign for the ballot measure. A simple majority is needed for passage.

“It is very simply written,” he said of the amendment. “All it does is prohibit new sales taxes on services that we use every day.”

Missouri has a history of not taxing services such as haircuts and health care, Barklage said, adding, “We don’t need to now.”

Barklage said state bureaucrats in recent years sought to tax dance and yoga studios. It took legislative action and an override of a Gov. Jay Nixon veto to block such a move, he told the crowd.

Barklage said state government will continue to seek to impose sales taxes on one service after another unless Missouri voters “put our foot down.”

The Amendment 4 coalition includes liberals and conservatives, he said. The Missouri Press Association has endorsed it, marking the group’s first such endorsement of a voter initiative, Barklage said.

“Right now, people don’t trust politicians,” he said.

Businesses throughout Missouri received a letter from the Missouri Department of Revenue earlier this year warning of a potential obligation to remit tax on delivery charges. The warning followed a Missouri Supreme Court ruling in a case involving a construction company that had objected to being taxed on delivery charges it paid to rent three cranes. The court ruled against the construction firm.

Barklage said passage of Amendment 4 would “give a very clear direction to the courts” that sales or use taxes should not be imposed on such services.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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