If Amendment 5 passes on Aug. 4, the state income tax will be phased out.

If Amendment 4 passes, the ability of individual citizens, like you and me, to initiate and pass a ballot amendment will be restricted.

“Missouri Promise,” a pro-Amendment 5, nonprofit, political action committee (PAC) with anonymous donors, is attempting to scare us with the specter of “big tech” and out-of-state money’s influence on Missouri politics.

Backers of Amendment 4 are using some of the same talking points.

I’ve got news: the influence of out-of-state money is already operating in Missouri, thanks to established state laws.

In 2022, former Governor Mike Parson signed the Personal Privacy Protection Act into law. The act protects non-profit groups (including PACs) from the need to disclose their donors (RsMO 105.1500). Now, whosoever will, from hither and yon, can donate anonymously and influence Missouri state law.

Missouri Promise, one such influential PAC, gives just enough information to sound truthful, while being misleading.

Yes, many “big tech” data companies in Missouri aren’t paying state sales and use taxes, but not because of a loophole. The blame lies on tax credits (RSMo. 144.810) deliberately dished out by our governor and legislators.

Tax credits for qualifying data centers cover 100% of state sales and use taxes for materials and utilities used in the construction and operation of data centers for up to 15 years. The tax credits were proposed by then-Senator Mike Parson in 2015, and were signed into law that same year. They’ve been effective ever since.

While we underlings have been sweating with legitimate concern about the impact data centers will have on our electric bills and on the environment, our elected state officials have been courting those very entities.

The deals they cut reek like freshly-sliced Roquefort, as does another tax credit called the State and Local Tax (SALT) Parity Tax Credit (RSMo. 143.436).

Here’s where Amendment 5 comes in.

The SALT tax credit was signed into law by former Governor Mike Parson in 2022, when the Personal Privacy Protection laws were enacted. The weird name distracts from the SALT credit’s purpose: to provide a handout to certain out-of-state partnerships and corporations who do business in Missouri.

“Pass Through Entities,” as such out-of-state corporations are called, are required by law to pay Missouri state income taxes, but the SALT tax credit provides some of them with a work-around for both state and federal taxes.

Pay close attention, here.

The formula for calculating the amount of state income taxes a Pass Through Entity will owe when using the SALT credit, hinges on — get ready for this — the current state income-tax rate for individuals.

I’m no tax expert, but if Amendment 5 passes, with its stated goal of reducing the individual state income tax rate to zero, it seems that some out-of-state companies who operate in Missouri could get a free state-tax ride. Maybe even companies like Denali and HydroAg. I’d hazard a guess that a few more data centers will be looking to set up shop as well. The blatant bribe of our public tax dollars will be served up by Gov. Mike Kehoe, who, we are told, will already be facing a budget deficit during the upcoming year.

The numerical value of SALT tax credits for out-of-state Pass Through Entities could explain a discrepancy between Missouri’s 2024 and 2025 Financial & Statistical Reports, published by the Department of Revenue (DOR).

The state’s 2024 report for the fiscal year ending on June 30 of that year shows that the state collected $1.4 trillion in revenue from Pass Through Entities. By comparison, the DOR reported that the individual income tax collected — typically the highest revenue source for the state — was a paltry $9 billion for that same year.

In 2025, a disappearing act occurred.

The 2025 fiscal-year financial report (a report that the DOR states is “revised” and “updated”) shows a revenue of only $746 million collected from Pass Through Entities for FY 2024 – not the $1.4 trillion that had been reported the previous year.

That’s a shortage of more money than I can get my head around. Billions of dollars, is it? Where did it go?

Somebody owes us an explanation. I’m still waiting for the DOR to answer my questions.

Maybe the shortage is the result of a simple miscalculation, or maybe the billions of dollars wiped from the slate went down the sinkhole surrounding the SALT Parity tax credit — an amount that perhaps also includes tax credits to data centers.

Although Missouri isn’t willing to share with the public the cost of data center tax credits, some states do. Virginia reports that their data center tax exemption program cost that state $1.6 billion in 2025. Georgia reports a cost of $625 million for the same year.

Yes, yes. More out-of-state businesses may flock to Missouri to take advantage of our more-than-generous tax terms if Amendment 5 passes.

However, businesses like data centers and sludge-spreaders have no interest in our Ozarks heritage. Nor are they concerned about our environment and the quality of our water. They’ll plunder our natural resources from far-removed urban towers, with dollar signs dancing in their heads

If Amendment 5 passes, who do you suppose will make up for the loss of over $9 billion paid in income taxes by individuals?

It won’t be out-of-state Pass Through Entities.

The average Missourian who lives here, and doesn’t anticipate ever leaving, will be left trying to support the state’s financial structure by paying higher prices on goods and service — much higher, if we’re to compensate for a $9 billion loss in individual state income taxes.

Out-of-state businesses will profit if Amendment 5 passes, while leaving Missouri residents poorer in more ways than one.

If Amendment 4 passes as well, we underlings will be stranded up Sludge Creek, without much hope of rescue.

Sheila Harris is a long-time Barry County resident and a sales executive and investigative reporter for the Cassville Democrat with a particular interest in environmental topics. She may be reached at [email protected].