TAX NEWS - JUNE 2010

E-Tax: Rex Sinquefield sinks another $2.5 million into E-tax repeal effort

by Barb Shelly, 04 June 2010 -- Yikes. Rex Sinquefield, the meddling multimillionaire, has dropped an additional $2,534,000 into the campaign to repeal the earnings tax in Kansas city and St. Louis.

Sinquefield has now spent nearly $4.3 million to support an initiative that hasn't even been approved to appear on a statewide ballot yet.

Update: Sinquefield spokesman and attorney Marc Ellinger says the big contribution is a preventive measure "against the big corporate and public employee union interests that are expected to spend millions trying to prevent voters from having a say on earnings taxes." See his full statement below.

The new donation does seem to indicate that Sinquefield and his supporters are confident they turned in enough signatures to be certified by the Missouri Secretary of State's office in August.

Assuming that happens, I guess we can expect a barrage of mailings and radio and TV ads talking about the competitive disadvantage of the earnings tax, which makes up 40 percent of Kansas City's general fund.

I still say that garbage rotting in the street and other absent services would place the city at more of a disadvantage. But who's going to come up with nearly half a million dollars to make that argument?

Sinquefield made the donations to a state campaign committee called "Let Voters Decide." His initiative, if passed statewide, would require voters in Kansas City and St. Louis to vote every five years on whether to keep the E-tax. That's a nuisance for everybody, but especially the budget planners who have to factor in the fact that a major source of revenue could be cut off every five years.

Thanks, Mr. Sinquefield. That's some favor.

Here's Ellinger's full statement:

More than 210,000 Missouri voters signed petitions to qualify the Let Voters Decide Initiative for the November 2010 state ballot. That's more than double the amount needed.

This effort was successful thanks to the continuing financial support of retired Missouri philanthropist Rex Sinquefield. Rex wants to make sure the Let Voters Decide campaign has adequate resources to go up against the big corporate and public employee union interests that are expected to spend millions trying to prevent voters from having a say on earnings taxes.

This important measure will allow Missouri voters to decide if they want to prohibit any new earnings taxes in our state and let voters in St. Louis and Kansas City decide in future local elections whether they want to keep or phase out the existing earnings taxes in their city.