JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The FBI has been asking questions about why Missouri House leaders blocked legislation earlier this year affecting millions of dollars worth of sales taxes charged by cities.
State Rep. Tim Jones told The Associated Press on Monday that he was contacted by telephone in October by an FBI agent inquiring why colleagues spiked the 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 cities to continue imposing multiple sales taxes for general purposes or capital improvements — effectively negating lawsuits that contended the practice 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 in the process. Richard said he held up the bill because of opposition from House Majority Leader Steven Tilley, R-Perryville. Tilley said he had done nothing improper.
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 liason or for simple questions. But we do not comment on specifics,” said FBI spokeswoman Rebecca Wu.
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<img src=" http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/new.gif" border=0> Missouri lawmaker says FBI asking about sales tax bill
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