Happy Friday, Show Mo Facts supporters! In today’s blog post, we’ll evaluate and fact-check a tweet by Missouri State Senator, Tony Luetkemeyer. Luetkemeyer is the current State Senator for the 34th district, representing Platte and Buchanan counties. Luetkemeyer is the incumbent for this district and has won the Republican primary to continue his re-election campaign. Voters need to make informed decisions about their representatives, especially when they are already making decisions at the state capitol.
Claim: The 2022 Missouri Tax Cut, supported by Luetkemeyer, puts money back in the pockets of struggling Missouri families.
Fact: The 2022 Missouri Income Tax Cut was officially approved by the Missouri General Assembly on September 29, 2022. Governor Parson has indicated his support for the proposed bill making its implementation likely.
The median household income in Missouri’s 34th Senate district is $66,327. If Parson signs the bill into law, “taxpayers who make between $22,000 and $66,000 a year would on average, see savings between $10 and $50 next year” (Ballentine, 2022). By comparison, “the wealthiest 1 percent of Missourians would receive $6,024 on average” (Missouri Budget Project, 2022). The tax cut legislation is weighted to benefit wealthy Missourians while leaving out those with the lowest incomes. The infographic attached below by the Missouri Budget Program outlines how the proposed tax cut affects various income brackets. The bottom row, delineating the impact of the Tax Cut, demonstrates that the most significant reduction in tax rates occurred for the wealthiest individuals in Missouri.
This tax cut is anticipated to cost about $950 million annually in lost state revenue once fully completed. While the richest taxpayers benefit the most from the tax cuts, the decrease in state revenue would make it extremely difficult to fully fund schools, public safety, healthcare, and other critical needs in Missouri.
Members of the GOP, including Luetkemeyer, would argue that these costs are justified by the amount of money that will be returned to the pockets of Missouri families. However, this argument fails to recognize that tax cuts, especially when they are not properly funded, drive up prices, worsen inflation, and raise interest rates. This trend is already evident internationally as the UK faces an economic crisis of high inflation and high-interest rates due to unfunded tax cuts enacted over time.
Therefore, the average households within Luetkemeyer’s district are only positioned to receive around $10 to $50 from the 2022 Missouri Tax Cut. Luetkemeyer’s claim that the tax cut will put money back in the pockets of hard-working Missourians is technically accurate, but it overstates the significance of this monetary assistance. The average electric bill in Platte and Buchanan counties ranges between $130 to $150. This means that the tax cuts would not even be enough to assist Missouri residents in paying their electric bills. Additionally, Luetkemeyer fails to acknowledge the increases in costs, typically associated with tax cuts, that Missouri residents would have to absorb as a result.
Due to Luetkemeyer’s overstatement regarding the effects of the 2022 Tax Cut, we rate this advertisement HIGH on our Pants on Fire O-Meter. The tax cut favors the wealthiest Missourians, while the average voter in Luetkemeyer’s district is only set to make $10-50 at the risk of increasing inflation.
Luetkemeyer misleads his voters by making them think that he advocates for bills that support them, without acknowledging that he is actually selling out to the richest interests in Missouri. Remember, political campaigns use social media to benefit the candidate, not democracy. It is their job to reinforce Republicans’ existing views about tax cuts, rather than challenging them. While Luetkemeyer uses tax cuts to rally his base, voters must remember that social media encourages the dissemination of emotional and inaccurate information. It is important that voters in Buchanan and Platte counties are aware of how Luetkemeyer’s policies actually affect them so that they can vote based on facts, rather than misleading statements.
Thank you for reading Show Mo Facts! Be sure to follow us on Twitter as well as like and comment on this post. Also, send us any ads that you see and would like us to cover through our Contact page. If you’d like to check out another blog from our class, we recommend Gateway To Facts. They are fact-checking the MO DNC. Find them here!
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