Governor Nixon warns the legislature that more than 120-thousand Missourians will be hit with sales tax-due notices if the legislature overrides one of his vetoes next month.
The state supreme court ruled in March that local sales taxes collected on out-of-state purchases of vehicles are illegal unless voters had approved them. The legislature quickly passed a bill saying the purchase would be considered complete when the items are licensed in Missouri — thereby making collection of tax legal. Lawmakers say the bill protects dealers on the borders from losing crippling amounts of business to dealers across the state line.
Nixon vetoed it, saying the bill would allow collection of a tax voters had not approved. Nixon has sent a letter to lawmakers saying that an override of his veto would result in sales tax bills being sent to almost 123,000 purchasers of vehicles since the court ruled the taxes illegal in March.
House Majority leader Tim Jones admits the letter is a “complicating factor” in the override effort. .
Jones admits a veto override could just trigger a new court challenge of a tax that would still be imposed without a vote in two-thirds of Missouri’s counties and in about 95 percent of Missouri’s communities.
