March 2008

The state senate votes to get the Missouri Department of Revenue out of the junk mail business, permanently.

Missourians have been getting notices that they need to renew their vehicle licenses. And with those notices have come advertisements from private companies.

Senator Tim Green of St. Louis argues the state has no business deluging citizens with junk mail in letters telling them they must do something. The Department of Revenue has been getting 800-thousand dollars a year from a junk mail advertising company and Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Stouffer does not want that income stopped. He suggests it will be up to Green to find a new source for the $800,000 the department would permanently lose. Green suggests the money could be easily made up by reducing some of the tax breaks the legislature has been giving to "corporate America."

Stouffer says the issue could become academic in a few months because the advertising company now working with the department is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars and will not renew its contract July 1. He does not want the legislature to keep the department from contracting with another company. Stouffer says the income helps offset the costs of department mailings. Green says he wants to keep the revenue department from resuming the practice with somebody else. He’s been able to stick his anti-junk mail provision on several bills so far this session and says he’ll add it to others whenever he gets a chance. .