Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon and the Republican-led General Assembly will face-off next week over a bill vetoed earlier this year that would have required Missouri residents to pay sales taxes on vehicles purchased in other states.
The bill in question sought to reverse a State Supreme Court ruling that local sales taxes cannot be levied on out-of-state vehicle purchases. Governor Nixon says overriding the veto would result in a retroactive tax hike without a vote of the people:
“One-hundred-twenty-two-thousand people (will be) getting a tax bill," Nixon says. "One-hundred-eight-thousand of those folks who are getting those tax bills are not folks who dealt with dealers, but those folks who sold cars to each other. We’re going to have to figure out a way to go collect taxes from people who were not charged at that time.”
The chair of the House Budget Committee says, though, that the governor’s veto will deprive cities and counties of much-needed revenue for police and fire departments, and that it will hurt auto dealers in Missouri by driving car customers out of state.
