State Senator Sam Graves discusses our upcoming tax refund checks: they will be in the mail.
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by State Sen. Sam Graves
In 1980, the citizens of Missouri voted to adopt a change to our state’s constitution that ensures state government spending can’t outpace growth in the private sector.
This amendment is officially known as Article X of the constitution. Most citizens, however, known it by its more common name the Hancock Amendment, after former Congressman Mel Hancock, a Republican from Springfield who passed the amendment on the ballot.
This amendment requires that refunds be made if growth in state revenues exceed growth in the private sector, which is calculated using a complex formula that includes the consumer price index.
In the next few months, citizens across the state will begin receiving their latest refund checks under this amendment. Officials in the Department of Revenue are now calculating the total refunds, and should have determined the exact refund amounts in the next few weeks or so.
As with all spending, these refunds must be approved by the Legislature through the appropriations process. This year, the House and Senate approved a total of $257 million for the refunds.
This latest round of refund checks will mark the fourth time in three years that revenue refunds have been made directly to citizens under the Hancock Amendment. To date, $679 million has been returned to citizens through these revenue refunds.
The refunds are made on a pro-rata basis, that is, the more that is paid in taxes, the larger the refunds will be. While officials are still calculating the exact amount of the refunds, citizens can expect to get back approximately seven percent of what they paid in state income taxes last April.
The new refunds will push the total refund amount to the one billion dollar mark. In addition, more refunds are expected again next year. The refunds will be in addition to the various tax increases passed by lawmakers over the last three years.
Making these refunds is not something to be proud of. It means that government is collecting every red cent it legally can. It is embarrassing to me that with this administration we have the fastest growing state spending in the nation.