T.J. Berry Archives - Missourinet

House approves two tax cut proposals along party lines

February 21, 2014 By Mike Lear

The state House has passed two proposals for cutting taxes along very similar party-line votes.

Representative T.J. Berry (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The bill sponsored by Representative T.J. Berry (R-Kearney) would cut corporate income taxes in half and allow half of business income reported on personal taxes to be exempted. Legislative researchers estimate the bill would cost the state up to $347-million annually.

Berry says his proposal will spur job creation.

“What House Bill 1253 is about,” Berry tells colleagues, “is incentivizing the creators so that we grow, and when they grow I guarantee you everyone else gets an opportunity also.”

See Rep. Berry’s legislation, HBs 1253 & 1297

Representative Andrew Koenig (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The other bill, sponsored by Representative Andrew Koenig (R-Manchester), would include the exemption for business profits reported as personal income and would cut individual income tax rates along with an exemption for lower-income Missourians. General revenue would have to grow by $100-million to $150-million in order for the cuts to take effect. Legislative projections are that the bill could cost the state up to $703-million by 2021.

“This is a reasoned approach and it will make our state more competitive,” said Koenig.

See Rep. Koenig’s legislation

Every House Democrat present for both votes voted against the proposals.

Representative Margo McNeil (D-Florissant) says testimony during a committee hearing on Berry’s bill indicates Missouri already has a competitive tax policy.

“We had testimony in that committee that said Missouri was the third best state in the nation for corporate income tax. I’ve also heard seventh best. In other words, we already have a pretty good tax rate for corporations in this state.”

McNeil says legislators shouldn’t be pushing tax cuts with other funding needs, such as in mental health, drug rehabilitation centers and education.

She tells lawmakers the foundation formula for K-12 education funding is, “still $550-million under-funded from what, statutorily, we were to be.”

Both bills received 106 votes, well above the 82 required to pass in the House but just shy of the 109 that would be needed to override a gubernatorial veto. Governor Jay Nixon (D) vetoed a tax cut bill last that came down to a close, failed override attempt in the veto session, when 15 Republicans sided with Democrats in voting to sustain that veto.

Governor Nixon issued a statement denouncing the bills as, “fiscally irresponsible experiments that would funnel nearly a billion dollars out of our classrooms and other priorities.”

Both bills have been sent to the Senate.

Sponsor: no debate of House tax cut proposal this week

February 4, 2014 By Mike Lear

House legislation that would cut business taxes is ready for floor debate, but that won’t be happening this week.

Representative T.J. Berry (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House Bill 1253 sponsored by Representative T.J. Berry (R-Kearney) would cut taxes on business income reported by individuals by 50 percent while cutting gradually to 50 percent the corporate income tax rate, or immediately for businesses that pay 150 percent of their counties’ average wage.

Berry says leadership wants lawmakers to have more time to go over the proposal.

“Considering (House Bill) 253 from last year was so complicated and had a good deal of controversy around it, we want to be prepared as a body to discuss it next week.”

Legislative researchers estimate the bill would reduce state revenue by up to more than $347-million a year. Berry says he thinks that’s reasonable.

“I am more than happy to go with that figure and go with that bill,” says Berry. “I still think the governor will veto that bill. At that point people will have to measure their reaction and see if we want to override the governor at that point.”

Today in a House Committee Berry presents his other proposal (HB 1254) that includes tax amnesty and a business tax cut mean to spur job creation.

House to have multiple options for tax reform, cuts

January 13, 2014 By Mike Lear

The House will have at least three different approaches to tax reform to consider in this legislative session.

Representative T.J. Berry (R-Kearney) offered the tax cut proposal that last year was vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon, with that veto upheld after a summer of campaigning for and against it by supporters and detractors.

Berry has filed two bills based on the one rejected last year but with changes he thinks will make them more favorable to the Governor and those who voted to sustain the veto.

“We could go through this whole process again with about the exact same results. That’s why I sat down with the Governor’s office, I’ve sat down with the 15 [House Republicans that voted to sustain the veto], I’ve listened very carefully to what they’ve said to me and tried to craft something that has an opportunity to pass.”

Berry says HB 1254, “takes the Governor at his word and takes the things out that he objected to, whether that is the prescription drugs, the textbooks, the retroactivity. Take all those things and makes sure the bill is better from his standpoint and go ahead and pass it, put it in front of him and see if he is serious about tax reform.” That legislation also includes tax amnesty, which Nixon has called for passage of in recent years. He says HB 1253, “is really a little bit even tighter, and it is structured in such a way to incentivize job creation at the lowest level of corporations.”

Berry estimates the bill would cost the state about $125-million dollars.

House Democrats will unveil today a tax reform bill carried by Representative Jon Carpenter (D-Gladstone) that he says provides a larger tax cut to most individual Missourians but would be revenue-neutral for the state.

Carpenter says his bill would simplify Missouri’s tax structure and provide a tax cut to Missourians making less than $300,000 a year and to a “majority” of Missouri small businesses.

Carpenter says the bill achieves revenue neutrality in two ways. “One, we lower the deduction that you can claim from your federal tax deduction … secondly it asks folks making more than $300,000 dollars to pay a little bit more.”

Sponsor says ‘odds are long’ on tax cut bill veto override

September 6, 2013 By Mike Lear

The House Speaker says the votes aren’t there to overturn the veto of a tax cut bill. That bill’s sponsor says with the veto session looming, there are still “cards yet to be played.”

Representative T.J. Berry (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative T.J. Berry (R-Liberty) sponsor of a bill that would cut corporate and individual income taxes says he’s looking forward to having the veto session over with. He says he thinks the vote will be very close on whether to overturn the Governor’s veto of that legislation, HB 253.

“There’s a huge difference in veto session versus regular session and there are a lot of people that might say that they’re a yes or no, or maybe. When it comes down to it on the day when you’re taking a vote that counts it will probably be fairly quiet in the chamber and people will be taking their jobs very seriously.”

Berry doesn’t think it will do any good to put any last-minute pressure on party members, urging them to vote for an override.

“I respect the people that have had questions on 253, may be leaning towards ‘No.’ I think at this point working on people is not real productive, but making sure to put as many things on the table as possible is.”

Governor Jay Nixon has been traveling around the state campaigning in support of his veto, telling school officials the bill could cost some districts millions of dollars. According to liberal advocacy group Progress Missouri, 100 school boards in the state have passed resolutions urging support for the veto. Some Republicans have been cited as saying they will not vote to override.

Even so, Berry says the issue will be brought to a vote and he thinks it will be close.

After hearing the Governor spend much time talking about what Republicans have called “drafting errors” in the bill that would raise taxes on prescription drugs and college textbooks, Berry says he still wants the Governor to answer one question.

“If those were fixed, would he sign it? I don’t believe that he would. I think this is one of those philosophical divides where there is a distinct difference between Republicans and Democrats and that he would be against it, but he doesn’t want to say that.”

Berry also wrote a letter to the Governor asking him to call a special session concurrent to the veto session so that those errors could be fixed. Nixon has rejected the idea and calls the request an acknowledgement that there are flaws in the bill. Berry criticizes the Governor for not answering his request privately.

Nixon, staff to talk about income tax cut veto, House sponsor decries veto reasoning

June 11, 2013 By Mike Lear

Governor Jay Nixon and two of his advisory staff members will discuss his veto of what would have been the first cut to Missouri’s income tax in more than 90 years, in separate events today. Nixon will talk about veto after addressing a forum on higher education today in Jefferson City, then his budget director and legal policy advisor will explain more about it this afternoon at the Capitol.

Representative T.J. Berry (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The sponsor of HB 253 that would have cut the individual and corporate income taxes of Missourians says Governor Nixon used the unintended repeal of a tax exemption on prescription drugs and college textbooks as an excuse to veto his legislation. Representative T.J. Berry (R-Liberty) says it wasn’t his intention to raise taxes in those areas.

He maintains that issue resulted from language supplied by the Revenue Department, though e-mails between legislators and the Department cast doubt on that explanation. Still, Berry says, “If [Governor Nixon] was really being genuine he would have gone ahead and called us into special session concurrently with the veto session and we would have just fixed it.”

Berry says he did not intend for the bill to include a repeal of a tax exemption for prescription drugs, and says if the veto is overridden that can be fixed by the legislature in January, before it has a chance to take effect.

Berry says legislative Republicans will consider whether to attempt to override the Governor’s veto, at a caucus in August.

“I would assume that we will work to override the veto, yes.”

Republicans would need every member of their House caucus to vote to overturn that veto, or else they would need some help from House Democrats.

Another reason Nixon gave for vetoing that bill is that he says it would cost the state $800-million needed for public services including education. Berry disagrees with that figure.

“The first year of this tax decrease was already paid for by tax amnesty and a couple of other things, and then the only time we would decrease taxes is when we had at least $100-million increase in revenue, so we were allowing people to keep just a little bit of the increase in revenue.”

The bill used a 3-year rolling formula that would have been triggered by a year in which Missouri revenue grew by at least 100-million dollars over the highest rate in the previous three years, before the income tax cuts would kick in.

The bill also included tax amnesty legislation and the creation of a streamlined sales tax.