ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com)—
"Devastating" is the word being used Thursday night to describe the impact on the city of St. Louis if voters repeal the earnings tax. Officially, what they held here at the Gribic Banquet Hall was a public hearing before the Aldermanic Ways and Means Committee. But really, it was a road show, the third they've had in two weeks, trying to convince city residents repealing the earnings tax would be a titanic disaster. As it turns out, they had them at "hello."When Aldermen Joe Vaccaro asked the audience who thought repealing the tax was a bad idea, every hand went up.
Obviously, city officials are gravely concerned about efforts to repeal the one percent earnings tax because it makes up about 31 percent of the city's budget. So now, aldermen are trying to deputize residents to spread the word, pass out flyers, whatever it takes to convince people across the region not to sign petitions seeking a statewide vote on the city's earnings tax.
Forrest Lang told us, "I do think it is a concern because, sad to say, right now we are not in the drivers seat if this petition does pass, then somebody else, basically outstate Missouri, is dictating to the city of St. Louis."
Dorothy Kirner added, "The city will go broke I think if they really do that, and one percent isn't too much on anybody."
The push to repeal the tax is being led by millionaire businessman Rex Sinquefield who thinks the tax is a business killer.
But aldermen argue repealing the tax will kill business because it will mean raising other taxes that will send shoppers and home buyers someplace else.
This whole thing is very tricky because the statewide vote would not be whether to keep the tax, but whether to force St. Louis and also Kansas City to put the question to local voters every five years, which means the cities would have to pay for those elections as well.
But before anything happens, the group pushing for the repeal will have to get 95,000 valid signatures from voters across the state.
