It appears the Missouri House is set to approve a bill that would grant a tax break to gun manufacturers (hat tip: John Combest). My first reaction was that this is a stunt. Yet, worse ideas have come out of the Missouri Legislature so maybe the House is for real.
Stunt or not, this is a bad idea. According to the bill’s own sponsor, gun companies are moving because of strict gun regulations. There is no mention of the tax environment. No matter one’s opinion regarding gun control, giving tax dollars to companies that do not need them does not make sense. It is not like other tax credit programs have covered themselves in glory.
If the state really wants to make Missouri more appealing to all businesses, including gun manufacturers, it should eliminate business income taxes. That would be too simple, though, wouldn’t it?
The first step in overcoming a problem is admitting it exists. The state seems to give at least lip service to that via the Tax Credit Review Commission. But just when you think there might be hope to get our tax credit problem under control, you see stuff like this. Hopefully, this will not actually become law, but who knows at this point?
