From staff, AP reports
news@joplinglobe.com
The FBI has been asking questions about why Missouri House leaders blocked legislation this year affecting millions of dollars worth of sales taxes charged by Joplin and many other cities.
State Rep. Tim Jones told The Associated Press on Monday that he was contacted in October by an FBI agent inquiring why colleagues held up sales tax legislation he sponsored.
The agent “said they’ve been talking to a lot of people and they were interested in why the bill did not proceed further,” said Jones, R-Eureka. “I told them, ‘You probably need to talk to the (House) speaker or the floor leader or both of them, and find out what their official positions were on the bill.’”
The legislation at issue would have allowed Joplin and other cities to continue imposing multiple sales taxes for general purposes or capital projects — effectively negating lawsuits that contended the practice, known as tax stacking, violated state law.
The bill was endorsed in early February by a House committee led by Jones. But House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, never referred the bill to the Rules Committee, which would have been the next step
‘Nothing nefarious’
Richard on Monday said that he held up the bill because of opposition from House Majority Leader Steven Tilley, R-Perryville. Tilley told The Associated Press he had done nothing improper. Globe efforts to reach Tilley Monday were unsuccessful.
Richard said there was nothing nefarious in the decision to hold up the bill. He said he wanted cities to get together to form a consensus on the legislation and to give their agents or lobbyists time to contact their representatives, be they Republican or Democrat, to make their case for the legislation. They also could make their case to Tilley, who Richard acknowledged Monday opposed the bill.
“I didn’t send it to him hoping the involved cities would contact him to make their case to him,” he said.
Richard also said Monday he never asked Tilley why he opposed the bill.
“He said he didn’t like the bill and wouldn’t have it,” was all Richard said he knew.
Richard also said he has not been contacted by the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.
A spokesman for the FBI office in St. Louis declined Monday to say whether an investigation was ongoing into the reason for the bill’s failure.
“We contact a lot of public officials in the course of conducting our business, whether it’s for an investigation, for liaison or for simple questions. But we do not comment on specifics,” said FBI spokeswoman Rebecca Wu.
Richard said Monday that Joplin was just one of many Missouri cities that, acting on advice from the Missouri Department of Revenue, had multiple sales taxes that might have been jeopardized by lawsuits, putting the communities in serious financial constraints if the lawsuits prevailed.
Those cities, he noted, acted in good faith, and he went on to say that legislation regarding the issue is not dead, but will be pre-filed by Jones in December.
The majority floor leaders of both the state House and Senate have also said they will propose legislation aimed at clearing up the question over how many sales taxes towns may assess and how much in such taxes may be assessed.
Compromise pending
A written statement issued in October by Tilley and state Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, states that they “will propose a potential resolution that would resolve pending disputes about the levels at which Missouri cities may impose municipal sales taxes on taxpayers.”
Their proposal would allow cities to keep their existing sales taxes in place, but prohibit future assessment of general sales taxes beyond 1 cent.
Joplin was the target of one of several lawsuits filed by attorney Tom Burcham, of Farmington. Burcham contends that the city violated state law by imposing, even with voter approval, a half-cent public safety tax as a general sales tax in addition to the city’s original 1-cent general sales tax.
Other Southwest Missouri cities affected by the lawsuits include Mount Vernon, Granby and Purdy. Burcham initially won a decision in the Purdy case, but Circuit Judge Robert Wiley recently set aside his decision in that case. The Granby lawsuit has been dismissed. Mount Vernon eliminated the offending tax and established another cited under state law, but the lawsuit is still pending.
Burcham dropped the lawsuits without prejudice this fall, adding that he reserved the right to refile them if compromise legislation isn’t approved. He said he favors legislation that would prevent tax stacking in the future but not penalize cities that have already passed multiple taxes.
Tax collections
Joplin’s 1-cent general sales tax was adopted in 1969. It has generated as much as $12.3 million a year to support the general fund. The half-cent public safety sales tax has brought in a total of more than $12 million since it started being assessed in 2007. It has funded the expansion of the police and fire departments, and crime deterrents.
