Gov. Jay Nixon’s vetoes of tax cut and gun bills stand in Missouri

Kansas City Star ^ | 9/12/13 | Jason Hancock

[DoodleDawg]

Gov. Jay Nixon saw a historic number of his vetoes go down Wednesday at the hands of a Republican-dominated General Assembly.

But in the end, he was able to claim victory on the year’s two most high-profile issues — a $700 million tax cut and a bill aimed at criminalizing enforcement of federal gun laws.

Fifteen Republicans joined with every Democrat in the Missouri House to put the final nail in the coffin of a tax cut bill that many Republicans pointed to as the marquee achievement of the 2013 legislative session. The override came up 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority required.

And while the House mustered the two-thirds majority needed to override Nixon’s veto of the gun bill, it eventually died in the Senate.

[DoodleDawg]

A mild surprise on the gun veto. Even those who believed that the law was an unconstitutional nullification of federal statutes said they were going to vote to override rather than be painted as pro-gun control. Still it failed by one vote. As for the tax law even it's proponents admitted it had problems that they promised to fix in the next session. Now they can fix them and re-introduce it next year.

[Mr. K]

ok which RINO’s voted aginst a tax cut?

[DoodleDawg]

ok which RINO’s voted aginst a tax cut?

Not sure. There wer 15 of them but none of the media are naming names.

[Marko413]

700 million?! That’s quite an impressive tax cut for the state of Missouri! Do they offer details of what all is being cut?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks DoodleDawg.

Fifteen Republicans joined with every Democrat in the Missouri House to put the final nail in the coffin of a tax cut bill that many Republicans pointed to as the marquee achievement of the 2013 legislative session. The override came up 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority required. And while the House mustered the two-thirds majority needed to override Nixon’s veto of the gun bill, it eventually died in the Senate.

[DoodleDawg]

700 million?! That’s quite an impressive tax cut for the state of Missouri! Do they offer details of what all is being cut?

I think there is a great deal of optimistic accounting in that $700 million figure, but it's still a considerable mix of cuts and some increases. The bill cut income and business taxes considerably but increased taxes on text books and prescriptions and muddied the rules for what constituted income for certain kinds of businesses. I believe the biggest knock against it was the increases that hit seniors and students and even the bill's proponents claim that they didn't mean to do that and would fix it the next session. But I think the consensus among those voting against the override was 'fix it first and then we'll vote on it'. So I expect that will get done in the next session.