A Missouri House committee is considering a 429-page tax reform plan, which also includes funding for the state’s deteriorating roads and bridges.

House Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee for two hours on Monday, presenting his bill.

Missouri House Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr testifies before the Ways and Means Committee on March 5, 2018 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

It would reduce Missouri’s highest personal income tax rate from 5.9 to five percent, and would reduce Missouri’s corporate income tax from 6.25 to five percent.

Haahr says his bill gives Missouri businesses a tax cut and incentivizes them to hire more Missouri workers to meet the state’s future workforce needs.

Haahr’s bill also would index vehicle user fees to the cost of inflation.

The Springfield Republican notes Missouri’s current vehicle license and registration fees were put in statute in 1984, and haven’t changed in more than 30 years.

Haahr testifies that this single change “would generate approximately $175 million (in) additional money to the state’s road fund.”

The Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to vote on the Haahr bill on Monday afternoon at 1.

Meantime, a bipartisan Missouri House committee investigating Governor Eric Greitens’ indictment held its organizational meeting on Tuesday.

The House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight’s organizational meeting took less than five minutes, and committee chairman State Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, directed most of his comments at the 20 reporters in the House hearing room.

Barnes noted that the committee will issue a public report at the investigation’s conclusion.

“But until that time, you are not going to get any comments from me or members of this committee or hints from members of this committee,” Barnes said Tuesday night. “You (reporters) are wasting your time trying.”

The committee held two other closed meetings this week at the Jefferson City Police Department (JCPD).

Meetings were moved there because it’s a secure location to protect witness privacy.

The House Special Investigative Committee on Oversight meets again on Monday (March 12) at 1 p.m. at the JCPD.