State budget leader questions wisdom of tax breaks

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's House budget leader says lawmakers might not have passed changes to corporate tax law if they had known corporate tax revenue would drop about 35 percent the first year those changes were implemented.

At issue is a 2015 bill by Republican Sen. Will Kraus to extend an option for calculating corporate income tax to technology and service-based businesses.

State budget and revenue officials estimated it would cost about $15 million in lost general revenue annually.

Corporate tax revenues dropped more than $155 million the first fiscal year it was implemented, although it's difficult to say whether the sole cause was the 2015 tax law change.

"We had bad information when we passed that bill," House Budget Committee chairman Scott Fitzpatrick said. "I think if we'd have had the correct information, we wouldn't have passed it."

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