Show-Me Pocket Change

The Missouri Budget Project has put together an evaluation of Missouri’s income decline between 2000 and 2008, and find that Missourians income decreases are among the worst in the nation.

According to the St. Louis Business Journal

Median income in Missouri fell from $53,330 to $46,906 or by more than $6,000 between 2000 and 2008 when adjusted for inflation — the third-largest decline in median income in the nation.

The number of Missourians living in poverty increased steadily since 2000 and reached 13.1 percent or 780,000 individuals by 2008.

The number of Missourians facing unemployment reached 9.5 percent in August 2009, nearly three times the level of 2000.

This data confirms what a lot of people have been sensing lately: that Missouri’s economy just isn’t keeping pace. Missouri has been hit harder by national economic down trends and is less able to take advantage of improvements and recover than the nation in general. Rocky terrain leaves us further and further behind, now at the third-largest lost of personal income. Ouch.

We’re also hemorrhaging jobs. These are not problems specific to Missouri, but like someone with a weakened immune system we’re more susceptible to and get a worse case of whatever ailments are out there.

The Missouri Budget Project sees that as an indicator that we should spend more on programs that help the unemployed or impoverished. That would be nice, but, I fear, ineffective. Instead of throwing our remaining resources into the maelstrom, hoping to slow it down, I’d rather see Missouri counteract the force of unemployment, with a better tax policy that brings industry to the state instead of driving it away, that puts more money in people’s paychecks for something as little as dinner or as large as a new job opening for a small business.

The more we can attract good jobs and enable people to invest in the local and state economy, the better we’ll be able to weather economic downturn in the future, and the better we’ll be able to grow our tax base to support services for Missouri’s disadvantaged. The more Missourians keep of their paychecks, the less they’ll need to supplement with social services – and just from a dignity standpoint, we should want everyone to have access to a self-supporting job. Then, we’ll have the base to really help those in dire situations, and not just give mini-band aids to everyone.

Moving revenue collection to a state sales tax and discontinuing income tax is about creating an opposite reaction to what’s dragging Missouri down. The more Missourians keep of their paychecks, the more likely businesses will be to flee California and come here. Sorry, California. And California is a prime example of what happens when you eat all the seven-layer tax cake. The more Missourians keep of their paychecks, the more money we’ll have coming into our economy in a sustainable way, the more able small – and large – businesses will be to stay open and expand with new jobs. It pulls us in the right direction.