Local governments tell Missouri lawmakers to continue taxing food

A Senate committee hearing Monday at the state Capitol was attended by lobbyists representing city officials and local governments across the state. They opposed cuts to local sales taxes on groceries and warned that vital services such as police, emergency response and road maintenance could be cut.

“This is going to devastate our community,” said Jonathan Douglas, city manager for Sikeston, a city of about 16,000 people.

Douglas said the estimated $2.3 million annual impact on Sikeston is equivalent to cutting the city's entire road and park maintenance staff and a quarter of the city's police force.

About $4.4 million of Florissant's $38 million budget comes from grocery sales taxes, said Patrick Mulcahy, the city's economic development director.

St. Louis city officials estimate that local sales taxes on groceries brought in nearly $19 million in revenue last fiscal year.

Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican running for Congress, is sponsoring the bill, which will be heard by the Senate Economic Development Committee. Under the proposal, local sales taxes on groceries would be phased out over four years. The state sales tax on groceries is scheduled to end this year.

Coleman asked the Senate committee to ignore testimony from lobbyists representing local governments.

“You will hear from the many elected officials who use state funds and tax dollars to pay lobbyists who oppose returning money to the pockets of Missourians,” she said on the committee. He spoke at “We fund our representatives' budgets based on essentials like eggs, meat and groceries for our poorest citizens.”

Jack Burgett, a lobbyist who represents St. Louis, Creve Coeur, Town & Country, Ballwin, Ellisville and Independence, said municipalities will lose funding for critical services without a plan to replace revenue. He said he was concerned.

But Kristin Woody, food security policy manager at the anti-poverty advocacy group Empower Missouri, said more than 30 states do not impose sales taxes on groceries and manage to balance their budgets. .

Coleman is one of several Republican and Democratic lawmakers this year to support a proposal to exempt groceries from sales tax.

Democratic House Minority Leader Crystal Quaid, who is running for Springfield governor, also supports legislation that would exempt groceries from state sales starting in 2026 and gradually phase out local taxes.

Eliminating the state's 1.225% sales tax on groceries would primarily apply to funding for public and charter schools. A small portion of your tax dollars goes to the conservation and natural resources departments.

Exempting groceries from the state sales tax would cut approximately $170 million from schools, $21 million from the Conversation Department and $17 million from the Natural Resources Department each year, according to a bipartisan fiscal analysis of the Coleman bill. That's what it means.

The proposal comes against the backdrop of a potential overhaul of Missouri's education funding. The Senate passed a major education package this month that expands the state's school voucher program, which can be used to pay for private school tuition, and also increases funding for public schools and teacher salaries.

Coleman's bill is Senate Bill 1062.