"The Voice of Missouri Business®" Weekly Report March 31 - April 4, 2025

By Ray McCarty and Matthew Smith

March 14, 2025 - Here is a quick recap of some of our activities on your behalf this week.

Proposition A - Minimum Wage and Paid Sick/Domestic Violence Leave Revisions (AIM supports)

By now you know Associated Industries of Missouri has joined other business groups in supporting bills aimed at reducing the burden on employers due to the passage of Proposition A. This week, we again advanced the bill by achieving passage in the House and the Senate committee conducted a hearing and approved the bill. We did NOT receive a Supreme Court decision but look forward to receiving that decision soon and are working on a legislative fix in the meantime. Stay tuned - this is our TOP priority this session!

Tax Reform (AIM supports certain provisions)

On Wednesday, April 2nd, the Senate adopted SS#2 HB 594 & 508 (Perkins/Trent) that includes many tax provisions:

• AIM Priority: Provides an immediate capital gains tax deduction for individual taxpayers and a contingent deduction for corporation income taxpayers when the individual income tax rate is reduced to 4.5% or less;

• AIM Priority: Clarifies a sales tax exemption for all sales, purchases, or use of machinery to provide broadband communications service by a broadband communications service provider;  

• Changes local sales taxes for law enforcement;

• Allows certain counties to impose a transient guest sales tax for the operating costs of a community center. Another section also includes bed and breakfast inns or campground cabins to entities that are subject to a separate transient guest tax in certain counties; and,

• Provides a sales tax exemption for the retail sales of diapers, incontinent products, and feminine hygiene products.

HB 798 (Warwick), one of the many pro-business tax bills AIM has supported this year, was heard in the Senate Economic and Workforce Development Committee. This bill includes provisions that allow deduction of capital gains, changes the individual income tax to a flat rate and reduces the individual income and corporate tax rate based on revenue triggers. Cutting these taxes will make Missouri a friendlier state for industry and help grow our state.

Providing a Fairer Process in Workers Compensation (AIM supports)

HB 497 (Christ) passed the House this week by a vote of 83-66. This bill clarifies the law for workers' compensation injuries. Currently, an injury is compensable if the accident is the prevailing factor in causing both the resulting medical condition and disability. HB 497 requires that the injury is compensable if the accident was the prevailing factor in causing the injury, resulting medical condition, the disability, and the need for treatment. This bill will now move to the Senate for further consideration. This bill also has an emergency clause attached, which means it will be implemented the day the Governor signs it.

Site Relocation Bill Fails on House Floor (AIM supports)

Unfortunately, HB 661 (Keathley) which would have required state and local governments to reimburse telecommunication companies and other unregulated utilities when they require them to move their infrastructure, failed in the House by a vote of 69-77. Fortunately, the Senate bill containing the same provisions, SB 489 (Ben Brown), was voted out of committee this week in the Senate, so there is still hope that we could see this provision make it through the process.  

Protecting Against Bureaucratic Overreach (AIM supports)

SB 221 (Schroer) and HB 663 (Keathley), bills that prevent administrative overreach, were heard in the House Judiciary Committee this week. These bills align Missouri law with the decision by the United States Supreme Court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. That decision overturned the Supreme Court decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, in which the Court decided courts should defer to government agencies' interpretation of statutes they found ambiguous. AIM supports these bills because we believe the Chevron deference provides too much flexibility to government agencies. Our laws are to be created and mandated by our elected officials in the legislature, where private citizens and industries can participate in the professional review of legislation to ensure it will be beneficial to citizens. Government agencies' role in the policy process is not to interpret but to enforce the law. These bills will ensure the true power of drafting legislation remains with the people’s General Assembly and not with unelected bureaucrats in government agencies. These bills’ next step is to be voted out of committee and then they will be debated on the House floor.

We intend to provide these legislative updates to you on a weekly basis on Fridays as we track the progress of these and other bills affecting Missouri businesses.