Sarah Steelman has announced her plan to repeal the state law that allows St. Louis's (and Kansas City's) 1% earnings tax. (See Post-Dispatch article here.)This idea is a great one whose time has come. Repealing the earnings tax would benefit the City immediately, possibly at the short-term expense of other parts of the region, but the City is the vital nucleus of this area. In the long term a thriving City is a benefit to us all.
There can be no doubt that the tax is one significant reason that people prefer to live outside of the City limits and businesses prefer to locate in St. Louis County. Why live in Dogtown and pay one cent of every dollar you earn to the City when you could live in Maplewood and keep that penny? Why open your office downtown when the City will take 1% of all your wages and all of your employees wages when you could open your office in Clayton?
People and jobs have fled the City in the past few decades at an alarming rate. It does not take a genius to see that the earnings tax is one cause.
So, does Steelman's plan sway me to vote for her in the Republican gubernatorial primary? Nope. Kenny Hulshof also supports a repeal of the city earnings tax.
No word from Democrat candidate-in-waiting Jay Nixon. But has a liberal ever supported the repeal of any tax?
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