JEFFERSON CITY —The Missouri Senate Committee on Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics today heard before it the Taxation with Representation Act (Senate Bill 1).
The Taxation with Representation Act is intended to make the politics of Missouri’s Capitol more accountable to Missouri citizens, empowering grassroots Missourians to play a greater role in the funding of political campaigns. It would let each Missourian subtract up to $100 per year from their state income taxes, letting them claim a dollar-per-dollar credit for donations to county-level party committees and to candidates for state representative, state senator and statewide office.
Sponsored by Senator Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, the bill received support from scores of citizens who submitted written testimony or testified in person. Among them were:
- Paul DeGregorio, former chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and former St. Louis County Director of Elections.
- Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and former director of BlackRock Investments.
- Richard Painter, former chief ethics counsel to the White House under President George W. Bush.
- Ava Mehta and Brent Ferguson, campaign finance experts submitting testimony on behalf of the Brennan Center for Justice.
- Chris Tallent, national campaign director of MAYDAY America.
- Sean Nicholson, senior content strategist and research director at GPS Impact and the former executive director of Progress Missouri.
- Scores of grassroots Missourians.
A packet of information on the bill, including testimony submitted for the committee hearing, can be found at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B75zK74tBwyUQjBHRGpvdGRxZlk/view.