On Nov. 19, nonprofit representatives, community leaders and residents met to
discuss a hot topic for the upcoming legislative session in Missouri – a potential overhaul of the tax-credit system.
The St. Louis Chapter of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare (MASW) hosted the open forum at the Highlands Golf Center in Forest Park.
Before Thanksgiving, the Tax Credit Review Commission will present its
recommendations to Governor Jay Nixon, who appointed the 25 commission members to study Missouri’s 61 tax credit programs.
These tax credits support the budgets of social and community development programs, including those that aid low-income families and children, senior citizens, distressed communities and low-income housing projects.
One of the most impacting recommendations will be to create sunsets for all tax credits, staggered over 2, 4 and 6 years, said Brian Schmidt, executive director of the Joint Committee on Tax Policy. Putting sunset clauses on tax credit programs creates additional barriers for agencies and could lead to the gradual elimination of tax-credit programs. Therefore these agencies would have to go back to Jefferson City and try to fight for them again or figure out another way to fund their programs.
Anne Silea works with Lutheran Family and Children’s Services, which uses tax
credits to assist their child care program. Without the tax credit, the programs would have difficulty finding enough funding to enable them to provide quality child care at an affordable price for parents, Silea said. Currently the organization has to reapply each year. The tax credits help increase the agency’s budget by leveraging one dollar of private donations for every one dollar of tax credits.