Below is a press release from Let Voters Decide, our campaign to create real job growth for Missouri.  The process towards the Missouri ballot is long and hard, but there’s never been a more important time for voters to consider a better way for economic growth.   Since the Show-Me State is currently 48^th in the nation, the plan that we are on simply isn’t working.  When our state isn’t growing, it hurts everything that our state wants and needs to serve.

Contact:
Travis H. Brown, President, Let Voters Decide
(314) 540-5515

LET VOTERS DECIDE GATHERING SIGNATURES, GAINING MOMENTUM

October 5, 2011 (Jefferson City, Mo.) – The Let Voters Decide coalition recently announced significant momentum surrounding the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act. The Secretary of State approved the measure, a critical step in its journey toward the November 2012 ballot. The Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act will soon be circulated for voter signatures.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to circulate this petition,” said Travis H. Brown, president of Let Voters Decide. “The Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act finally gives working Missourians a say about our state’s unfair double taxation. By collecting 120,000 signatures, we can show that voters statewide care about a new way forward for Missouri’s economy.”

The goal of the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act is to phase out the individual income tax and replace it with a broad-based, consumer-driven sales tax. This means that Missourians would be taxed on those items that they choose to buy, not on the fruits of their labor.

“When you consider Missouri’s educated workforce and our ability to innovate, you would think our state would be thriving,” Brown said. “Yet the reality is that we have the third-worst GDP growth in the entire nation. This measure would make Missouri a better place for businesses and working families, which is why we believe people will be eager to sign our petition.”

Under the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act, the state sales tax would increase by less than 3 percentage points. The expanded sales-tax base would provide our state with greater economic stability, making Missouri more likely to retain and attract businesses. Importantly, the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act protects low-income families by exempting necessities (such as health care, child care and rent) from a sales tax.

“This is a common-sense approach that will provide all working Missourians with an immediate 6 percent pay raise,” added Brown. “We have a jobs plan worth doing, and through the initiative process, Missouri voters can move it forward. If passed, this measure will drive economic development and bring real, lasting growth to Missouri.”

For more information about the Let Voters Decide coalition and the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act, visit www.LetVotersDecide.com.

Today, the Let Voters Decide committee submitted more than 209,000 signatures to the Secretary of State to place the measure on the November 2010 ballot. More than double the required number of Missourians signed the petition to place this question on the ballot.

The committee collected signatures in seven congressional districts, rather than just the required six. More than 210,000 signatures filling 104 boxes and 20,646 petitions sends a clear message that voters from all across Missouri want the opportunity to vote on this issue.

When this measure goes before voters in November, a YES vote would give voters in Kansas City and St. Louis the opportunity to decide every five years whether they want to continue collecting the earnings tax. A vote to repeal would phase the tax out gradually, over 10 years.

For Missourians not in Kansas City and St. Louis, a YES vote in November would prohibit local politicians from imposing an earnings tax anywhere in the state.

Based on the large number of signatures gathered, it is clear that Missourians want a say on local earnings taxes, and they will have their voices heard again on November 2.

For more information on the initiative, go to www.LetVotersDecide.com.

Follow Let Voters Decide on Facebook and Twitter.

The group, named Let Voters Decide, will soon start gathering the roughly 100,000 voter signatures needed to place the initiative on the November 2010 statewide ballot.

Attorney Marc Ellinger, a spokesman for the new group, explained that various versions of an earnings tax measure had previously been submitted for review by the Secretary of State, but only one of them is to be circulated and ultimately headed to the ballot.

“The statutory initiative measure we will pursue does not automatically repeal the existing earnings taxes in St. Louis and Kansas City,” said Ellinger. “It’s designed to give voters in those cities the right to decide for themselves, in local elections, whether they want to continue the earnings tax in their city or phase it out gradually over a period of ten years. The initiative also prohibits any new local earnings taxes in communities that don’t currently have one, so it protects people in the rest of the state from having a local earnings tax imposed in their city or town.”

With regard to St. Louis and Kansas City, Ellinger explained that the initiative requires local “sunset” votes on the existing 1% earnings tax in each city every five years starting in 2011. The tax would continue as long as the majority of voters continue to approve it in those local votes. If, in a future local election, the majority of local voters in St. Louis or Kansas City vote against continuing the earnings tax, it would be phased out in their city gradually, over a period of ten years, at the rate of one-tenth of a percent per year.

Ellinger said the primary initial funding for the Let Voters Decide campaign has been provided by retired Missouri businessman and philanthropist Rex Sinquefield. Travis H. Brown, who heads up the Pelopidas L.L.C., a consulting firm that represents Sinquefield, will serve as Chairman of Let Voters Decide.