According to Jeanette Mott Oxford, state representative for Missouri’s District 59, “the repeated quick fixes short- term efforts by elected officials for Missouri funding crises have done much more harm than good.”
She argues that actions within the budget have negatively impacted the well being of Missourians and threaten to stifle the future of the state. “We need sustainable solutions that will not leave us in the same broken down boat year after year,” Oxford said.
Oxford along with ten co-sponsors have introduced a bill for tax reform that reduces taxes paid for the 60 percent of Missourians with the lowest incomes, including a refundable sliding scale tax credit of $150 per person for families with an annual income of less than $30,000. The bill also requests a tax increase for those in the top 40 percent of tax brackets. She claims that this plan will produce more than $1 billion in new state revenue.