Politics Watch — February 8, 2010
Missouri's Republican voters ambivilent about Fair Tax, study finds
Republican voters aren’t throwing their weight behind a proposal to eliminate personal and corporate income taxes in Missouri — but they aren’t united against it either.
More than half of Republican voters had no opinion on the Fair Tax, according to a survey conducted by Missouri State University researchers in late January.
“The surprising finding regards the majority of state Republicans lacking an opinion on the proposal,” MSU political science professor Brian Calfano said in a statement. “Hence, there may be greater potential for the plan’s proponents and opponents to sway state Republicans on the 'Fair Tax' than conventional wisdom would assume.”
The Fair Tax would eliminate state income taxes on individuals and corporations, but would expand the state sales tax to apply to nearly all goods and services sold in the state.
Democrats were split evenly between supporting it, opposing it and having no opinion. The telephone survey interviewed 880 residents statewide.
The researchers said the survey did not ask about the actual constitutional amendment that has been proposed to enact the Fair Tax, but did ask whether respondents favored replacing the income taxes with sales tax.
HJR 71, the bill to amend the state’s constitution to enact the Fair Tax, was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
A similar bill, HJR 36, went to the Senate but never came up for a vote last year. Testimony from the bill's hearing in the Senate Ways and Means committee can be found on the Youtube channel for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.