Anti-tax Qualifies for Ballot.

Cole County Circuit Judge Paul Wilson ruled Tuesday that the proposed state constitutional amendment barring transfer taxes on real estate received enough petition signatures from registered voters to appear on the Nov. 2 ballot.

"There is no dispute that enough registered voters signed the initiative. The Vote ‘YES’ To Stop Double Taxation Committee showed conclusively in court that thousands of valid voter signatures were incorrectly thrown out by election authorities. We stood up for the rights of these voters to be counted, and the court has supported the rights of voters to be counted," said attorney Chuck Hatfield, who represented the campaign committee during several days of hearings.

The Vote "YES" To Stop Double Taxation Committee submitted tens of thousands of voter signatures on petitions to place the amendment on the ballot. However, the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office announced its conclusion that the proposal did not receive enough signatures of registered voters to qualify for the ballot.

The committee’s own analysis showed validation rates around 80 percent across six of the nine congressional districts where signatures were gathered, and in some counties better than 90 percent. The committee also showed in court that thousands of valid voter signatures were thrown out by election authorities for an array of questionable reasons during their reviews of the petitions.

The court victory means the Vote "YES" To Stop Double Taxation Committee will move ahead with a strong educational campaign for Missourians about the unfairness of transfer taxes. According to the committee, transfer taxes on home sales are double taxation because Missourians already pay annual property taxes on real estate, often over many decades of ownership.

The Committee also states that "Missouri is among just 13 states that do not impose a transfer tax on real estate sales, including all of Missouri’s neighboring states. As state, county and city revenues decline, politicians are tempted to impose new transfer taxes - just as Missouri citizens are struggling to make it."

The proposed state constitutional amendment is:

"Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to prevent the state, counties, and other political subdivisions from imposing any new tax, including a sales tax, on the sale or transfer of homes or any other real estate?"

The proposed amendment is sponsored by the 21,000-member Missouri Association of REALTORS.

I still get a big kick outa some of the studies and their conclusions.

I see the other day that some group has spent money figurin’ out that quality day care is somehow related to kids that don’t end up in jail as often. They compared these kids to ones who were visited at least four times a year at home by social workers.

Like all studies, the conclusions are drawn that fit the expectations. I suppose there are some who would conclude that social workers should stop checkin’ on kids. Seems they are the ones that get in trouble more often.

‘Course some common sense would tell ya that kids with any kind of quality care make for more stable adults. Just a guess, but stable adults prob’ly raise more stable kids.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’

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Weekly Columns

artCentral

ART NOTES from Hyde House

by Sally Armstrong, Director of artCentral

artCentral has been very fortunate in the past to receive generous donations of art from our many members and member-artists. Two years ago, if you remember, we were able to donate a gift that we received to the new McCune-Brooks Regional Hospital. The original sketches/diagrams for the FORGED IN FIRE mural by Lowell Davis that was painted in the Jasper County Courthouse were in the possession of the late Wendy Christensen. Wendy had given artCentral a number of art artifacts over the years, but when these came to us, we knew that they belonged in a place where the public could enjoy and appreciate them. After a funding campaign to frame these two large pieces, they were presented to the hospital along with plaques identifying them as well as identifying the donors to the campaign. They remain there in the Surgical Waiting room/lobby along with a beautiful collection of other original Lowell Davis paintings selected for the hospital’s original art collection by Beth Spradling Simmons. Now, we can add to that initial donation by presenting soon the third in that series, the actual oil painted original panel that completes the series. Originally, Lowell only finished in color this third panel, for the commissioning committee’s consideration, leaving the other two as carbon drawings. Though I favor the drawings for their dramatic shading, for their simplicity, the painted panel truly shows what the finished mural looks like. We have extended the campaign to include some additional donors, and look forward soon to presenting this panel to be hung along with the others on the wall, along with a third identifying plaque. Our thanks go posthumously to the late Christine Christensen Lobbey and her husband, the late Jim Lobbey, for the original gift of the sketches from their estate, and to her mother, Wendy particularly, for the third panel, which will complete the collection. When you are next in this beautiful new hospital, take time to visit all the "galleries" that Beth Simmons has created; the Jerry Ellis watercolor display near Maternity, the Bob Tommey oil paintings back in Radiology, April Davis’ butterfly paintings outside the Gift Shop, the beautiful Theresa Rankin oil that hangs in the Chapel and the Andy Thomas original oil in the front admissions area are just a few of the single paintings that can also be viewed in this new "hospital,-- no,-- art gallery" called McCune-Brooks!