Submitted
Dear Editor,
With an $8 billion dollar surplus we've never had, the governor of Missouri just vetoed $13 million for a police center in St. Louis City, vetoed $10 million for a public safety access point, in addition to the $5.2 million he vetoed for youth crime prevention, violence intervention and respite housing. I swear, the Republicans in Jeff City just love to point to crime, “blame Democrats” all while passing laws to prevent law enforcement from doing much of anything about it. The governor said we can’t afford the one-time costs because of the billion dollar tax cut he signed last year that mostly benefits wealthy people and does literally nothing for the third of people that make the least. And there's another tax cut bill - benefiting the wealthy - that reduces Missouri revenue by $300 million.
Let's not forget we still have the lowest state funding of education and lowest paid teachers in the nation; the lowest paid state workers; a wait time of up to a year for care for a kid in crisis so the MO foster system has to bed them in hospitals. MO also has $2 billion in other funds, mainly additional federal aid for state services like Medicaid. He can use that as general revenue rather than beef up Social Services staff to help Missourians. Remember that next time you call their office to get help and you're on hold for 4-6 hours. Friendly reminder, another gas tax hike just kicked in thanks to the MO GOP.
This is Missouri under Republican leadership, folks.
Jacqueline Farr
Chair
Benton County
Democratic Party
