Jetton Spreads the Good News

An article in the Lebanon Daily Record (via Combest) discusses Rod Jetton’s visit to the Hughes Senior Center in Lebanon to talk about the The Senior Tax Justice Act (HB 444). For the most part, he was discussing the benefits of the bill and why he was so passionate about repealing the tax on Social Security and other retirement funds:

We were one of only 15 states in the country that still taxed your Social Security benefits,” Jetton said to the crowd at the senior center. “It didn’t seem fair to you to pay your Social Security taxes your whole life, and then when you’re 62 and living in Missouri, you have to pay taxes again on the check when you get it. That’s unfair double taxation, and we’re going to stop it this year.

Well, Jetton is a little misleading about the taxes ending this year; the tax cut will be phased in over a five-year period. He is very correct about the state of Missouri being involved in an unfair system of double taxation. It makes no sense when you work to pay your social security taxes over your whole life, and then be taxed on the taxes you paid earlier in your life. It espeically hurts when it’s people who are on a fixed income, who in some way depend on their Social Security checks to get by. Congrats to Speaker Jetton for passing this piece of legislation, and hopefully this will be a move toward more tax relief for Missourians!