Missouri

Missouri poised to become first U.S. state to exempt stock sale profits from income taxes

Published

1 week ago

May 7, 2025

Missouri poised to become first U.S. state to exempt stock sale profits from income taxes

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Investors who profit from selling stocks, real estate and other assets soon could reap an even larger benefit in Missouri, which is poised to become the first U.S. state to exempt capital gains from its income tax.

Legislation that won final approval Wednesday would halt the capital gains tax this year for individuals and could eventually eliminate it for corporations, if state revenues keep growing. The tax repeal now heads to Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, who has said he’s “very supportive” of it.

Though proponents hope it can spur the economy, detractors assert that the capital gains tax repeal will primarily benefit the rich and result in less tax revenue for public schools and services. The Republican-led Legislature overcame objections by Democrats only after expanding the bill with greater tax breaks for seniors and disabled residents and new sales tax exemptions for diapers and feminine hygiene products.

Missouri’s unique income tax carve-out comes as Republican-led legislatures in at least eight other states have passed more traditional income tax rate reductions this year. It also comes as Congress weighs whether to renew and expand income tax breaks enacted during President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

Capital gains are profits from the sale of assets such as stocks, cryptocurrency or property. The federal government taxes long-term capital gains, on assets held for more than a year, at a lower rate than ordinary income.

All states that tax income also tax capital gains. Missouri currently is among 32 states and the District of Columbia that tax capital gains at the same rate as wages and other income, according to the nonprofit Tax Foundation. Eight states tax capital gains at a lower rate than other income.

Some Democratic-led states have been moving in the opposite direction. Maryland lawmakers last month passed a bill that would impose a 2% capital gains tax on those with incomes over $350,000. And Washington lawmakers recently passed legislation to impose an extra 2.9% tax on capital gains over $1 million. Minnesota already imposes a surcharge on capital gains and other investment income over $1 million.

Proponents of axing the capital gains tax say the tax discourages investment and incentivizes people to hold onto assets instead of selling them and spending money elsewhere in the economy.

“When you tax something you get less of it,” said Jonathan Williams, president and chief economist at the American Legislative Exchange Council, an association of conservative lawmakers and businesses. “The idea is, of course, you want more investment in your state.”

Though ALEC has long backed the repeal of state capital gains taxes, Missouri House Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins said the idea came to him last year from friends at an employee-owned construction company that was getting hit with the tax. He said his legislation also could benefit family farmers who want to sell their land.

The capital gains tax results in “lost economic opportunity, financial sclerosis, lower wages — all of which serve to make Missouri less competitive both domestically and internationally,” said Republican state Sen. Curtis Trent, who handled the bill in the Senate.

Opponents say the wealthy will get the greatest reward.

Repealing Missouri’s tax on capital gains would set “a worrisome precedent” nationally and “worsen economic and racial inequities,” said Sam Waxman, deputy director of state policy research at the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

One government study found that white families are more likely to report capital gains than some minorities. Among middle-income taxpayers, about 8% of white families benefited from the federal government’s tax rates on capital gains and dividends compared to just 3% of Black families and 1% of Hispanic families, according to a 2023 U.S. Treasury Department report.

In Missouri, about 542,000 individual income taxpayers reported capital gains in 2022, amounting to just one-fifth of all filers, according to the Missouri Budget Project, a nonprofit research group that opposes the capital gains tax repeal. The group estimates that 80% of the tax relief would go to the wealthiest 5% of taxpayers.

Legislative researchers estimate Missouri’s capital gains tax repeal could cost the state about $262 million annually when fully implemented. But that’s disputed by both supporters and opponents.

The Missouri Budget Project estimates the cost could be nearly $600 million annually.

Trent predicts the tax repeal will trigger “increased economic growth (that) will translate into increased tax revenue” over time.

Owen Zidar, an economics and public affairs professor at Princeton University, studied the impacts of 584 capital gains tax rate changes in states over four decades. Capital gains tax cuts tend to result in more people selling assets for gains, but not so much as to offset the lost tax revenue, he said.

Zidar said he is skeptical of claims that Missouri’s capital gains tax repeal will attract a lot of investment and economic activity.

“I think it’s going to be a substantial revenue decrease,” he said.

Source link

Related Topics:121574011 article Business Featured General news government budgets Government programs Politics taxes U.S. News®

Click to comment

Missouri

Missouri Set to Implement Ban on Phones During School Hours

Published

13 hours ago

May 15, 2025

Press Room

Missouri Set to Implement Ban on Phones During School Hours

(TNS) — Missouri lawmakers passed a bill earlier this week requiring public schools to ban cellphone use during the school day.

When the bill was first filed, it called for a cellphone ban in schools during instructional time.

However, state lawmakers took a more restrictive approach, with a complete ban on cellphones during the school day, including during lunch breaks, passing periods and study hall.

Now, the bill is heading to Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s desk.

PARK HILL CELLPHONE RULES

Last week, the Park Hill School District adapted a new cellphone policy with the help of a task force of 30 parents, teachers, administrators and students. The new rules tighten restrictions for high school students, restricting access during instructional hours but allowing students to use cellphones and Bluetooth devices during passing periods and lunch time.Kelly Wachelf, the district’s chief communications officer, said Park Hill will review the policy to ensure the district is complying with state law and will update it over the summer if needed.

Wachel said the district was already reviewing its cellphone policy not only because of the legislation but also because of parent and teacher concerns.

“This year in our middle school and elementary schools, we did not allow cellphone access or electronic personal device access,” Wachel said. “That was really born out of a lot of parental feedback. We were having parents approach us about helping limit access for their kids during the day so we could focus on classroom learning.”

CELLPHONES IN SCHOOLS

Andi Osborne, a junior at LEAD Innovation Studio in Park Hill, said she was more than willing to give up her cellphone during the school day, but she acknowledged she has a different relationship to her phone than many of her peers.

She didn’t join social media until last year.

For other students, Osborne said limiting phone usage in schools would be a challenge.

“It seemed like the only solution was we have to take (phones) away in some sort of way,” she said. “I think the students kind of realized that and we’re like, okay, if they’re gonna get taken away at least let me give a solution to what that could look like.”

Osborne, among the students who were part of the district’s process to craft a new policy, was surprised that several fellow students admitted in a survey conducted by the district’s task force that their phones were a distraction during school.

Through the survey and its 3,000 responses, the district found that 71 percent of students said they use their phones daily during instructional time for non-academic purposes.

The top four things students reported using their device for were:

Texting/messaging
Streaming/listening to music
Checking social media apps
Watching videos

Nikki Helling, a fifth-year English teacher at Park Hill South High School, said she’s noticed some of her younger students are affected by their phones, even outside of class.

As the student council sponsor, she sees students of all different grade levels interact. She’s noticed that when her younger students are in an uncomfortable or unfamiliar situation, they tend to use their cellphones as a crutch to comfort themselves.

As a younger teacher born in 1998, Helling said she’s not oblivious to the impacts of cellphones, but the research from the task force was able to help her make that connection clearer to her students.

“I don’t think I really made that connection that phone usage decreased the amount of face-to-face, emotional connection and time that students are having with their friends,” she said.

PHONE POLICIES IN OTHER DISTRICTS

During the 2024-2025 school year, Liberty Public Schools “expected” students to have phones silenced during the school day and asked students to “refrain from texting during instructional time, as cellphone etiquette is an expectation,” according to the district’s handbook.

While the district’s handbook does not explicitly ban cellphones, it does say that cellphone usage that is disruptive or interferes with the learning environment is prohibited.

North Kansas City Schools currently has a “bell-to-bell” cellphone policy that restricts students from using their cellphones during class time.

The student handbook says that students’ cellphones should not be seen, heard or accessed for any reason during class time. If electronic devices are needed for academic purposes, students should use their district-issued Macbook.

If Kehoe signs the legislation, schools will be expected to enact the total cellphone ban for the 2025-2026 school year.

Source link

Missouri

Missouri lawmakers seek to repeal abortion-rights amendment approved by voters last year

Published

1 day ago

May 14, 2025

Press Room

Missouri lawmakers seek to repeal abortion-rights amendment approved by voters last year

Abortion after Roe v. Wade: A further divided America

05:25

Six months after Missouri voters approved an abortion-rights amendment, Republican state lawmakers on Wednesday approved a new referendum that would seek the amendment’s repeal and instead ban most abortions with exceptions for rape and incest.

The newly proposed constitutional amendment would go back to voters in November 2026, or sooner, if Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe calls a special election before then.

Republican senators used a series of rare procedural moves to cut off discussion by opposing Democrats before passing the proposed abortion-rights revision by a 21-11 vote. The measure passed the Republican-led House last month.

Immediately after vote, protesters erupted with chants of “Stop the ban!” and were ushered out of the Senate chamber.

People in support of abortion rights protest outside the Missouri Senate chamber after the Senate voted to approve a referendum seeking to repeal an abortion-rights amendment on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Jefferson City, Missouri.

David A. Lieb / AP

Missouri’s abortion policies have swung dramatically in recent years.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ended a nationwide right to abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, it triggered a Missouri law to take effect banning most abortions. But abortion-rights activists gathered initiative petition signatures in an attempt to reverse that.

Last November, Missouri voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to abortion until fetal viability, generally considered sometime past 21 weeks of pregnancy. The amendment also allows later abortions to protect the life or health of pregnant women.

The new measure would seek the repeal the abortion-rights amendment and instead allow abortions only for a medical emergency or fetal anomaly, or in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. It also would prohibit gender transition surgeries, hormone treatments and puberty blockers for minors, which already are barred under state law.

Source link

Missouri

Senate slams brakes on House’s fast-tracked plan to keep Chiefs, Royals in Missouri – Missourinet

Published

2 days ago

May 14, 2025

Press Room

Senate slams brakes on House’s fast-tracked plan to keep Chiefs, Royals in Missouri – Missourinet

The state House passed a last-minute attempt to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in Missouri. The incentive package would pay up to half the cost of new and improved stadiums for the teams.

Rep. Chris Brown, R-Kansas City, is sponsoring the provisions added to a Senate Bill about NIL endorsements for high school athletes. He said the plan would help to create roughly 12,000 jobs.

“You’d have to do some pretty good math to try to figure out the negative economic impact,” said Brown. “If those two franchises left our state, it would be devastating.”

Rep. Jim Murphy, R-St. Louis County, said the decision comes down to two things.

We’re talking about two teams that generate about $50 million in economic impact in taxes every year,” said Murphy. “But then there’s a whole second question, what’s the political right thing to do? Because we’ve got constituents that we’ve got to explain this to.”

The House fast tracked the bill in this last week of session. Then the Senate slammed on the brakes.

It’s the second time in two working days that the House threw the Senate a last-minute curve ball.

Last Friday, House Budget Committee Chairman Dirk Deaton unexpectedly canceled a negotiated $513 million bill to fund construction projects around the state – citing a need to save money.

The Senate’s frustration with Deaton’s move boiled over into the Chiefs and Royals package on Tuesday.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, said he was not necessarily opposed to the Chiefs and Royals plan. He was venting about Deaton’s spending priorities.

“I’m going to point out the hypocrisy of individuals who say they stand on principle and say they are concerned about the financial implications that are made this year and just obligated potentially $900 million worth of financing,” said Hough.

Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, shared in Hough’s frustration.

“After all of this hypocrisy that has happened, we should just adjourn sine die,” said May. “These people making these decisions, the line is so crooked. I’ve been saying this since I’ve been here, but nobody’s listening. You want to kill our $500 million projects around the state, and then you do this bill?”

The Senate eventually adjourned Tuesday without voting on Senate Bill 80.

The legislative session ends Friday. The Chiefs plan to decide next month where their future home will be.