Missouri politicians find a way to keep those sweet tax credits flowing: screw the sick and the elderly

Missouri has a budget problem, because it gave away too much money in corporate income tax breaks. Somebody is going to have to pay. The governor and GOP legislators think they know who that should be.

Old people.

At first, Republican Gov. Eric Greitens wanted to tighten Medicaid eligibility requirements and force as many as 21,000 elderly and disabled persons out of nursing homes and home-care programs, saving the state about $57 million.

Republicans in the Legislature who have been around a bit longer than the neophyte governor understand that the optics of kicking old, sick people into the street are questionable at best.

So budget writers have reached for a low-hanging fruit — a tax credit that helps low-income seniors and badly disabled persons live at home. Known as the “circuit breaker” property tax credit — because it protects vulnerable people against property tax overload — Missouri’s credit helps nearly 200,000 seniors and people with disabilities.

A little more than half of those folks are renters, and they are the ones who would lose their benefit if the operative budget legislation continues to barrel its way through the Legislature.

People who claim the circuit-breaker credit are hardly affluent. Incomes for single people must be less than $27,500 if they rent their home, or $30,000 if their own it. Married couples can earn a little bit more, but not much. The average credit received last year at tax-filing time was $535.

Knocking the renters out of the equation would save the state about $55 million — roughly the same amount as Greitens’ misbegotten plan. But it would leave about 100,000 older and disabled Missourians without a badly needed chunk of cash. According to advocates, these seniors depend on the money they receive at tax time to catch up on utility bills, make car repairs and stock up on medications.

Lawmakers are framing their idea as the lesser of two evils. Which is worse: throw old people out of nursing homes, or just make their lives harder at home? Put that way, it’s a no brainer.

But the choice is false. Missouri gives away about $600 million in tax credits each year, with most of that amount benefitting developers, lawyers and an array of businesses. Given that setup, the real question is: Why should senior renters have to take this hit?

Like Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon before him, and GOP Gov. Matt Blunt before that, Greitens has assembled a commission to reform the state’s runaway tax-credit programs. Good luck with that. Beneficiaries of the more lucrative giveaways are no doubt writing checks to Greitens’ dark-money slush fund, the nonprofit “New Missouri,” this very moment.

As government gets meaner, the circuit-breaker’s days may be numbered, no matter who’s in charge. Nixon tried to get rid of it in 2013, and current attacks on it have been bipartisan. Low-income senior citizens and disabled people aren’t well positioned to storm the Capitol or buy off politicians with generous contributions. 

Missouri seems to be in the vanguard of a GOP push to clobber senior citizens. President Trump wants to slash funding sources that many communities use to run Meals on Wheels programs. Republicans in Congress are talking up changes to Medicaid that would be disastrous for sick, elderly and disabled beneficiaries.

Ever the bellwether, Missouri has a survival lesson to teach in the deep-red America of 2017: Don’t be sick. Don’t be poor. Don’t be old. And whatever you do, don’t be all three.