Eric Burlison interviewed by Don West on Mediacom News Leaders

Giving you an opportunity to get the full story from the people who tell it best, this is Mediacom News Leaders. Hi everybody, I'm Don West, time once again for Mediacom News Leaders, and we're joined this hour by Eric Burleson, Missouri State Representative of the 133rd District, representing Western Springfield and the City of Battlefield. Eric, welcome back to you, sir. It's great to see you again, Don. Tell me about the latest Missouri session that ended in May. Yeah, we had a very historic session. One of the bills that we had passed was a tax cut bill. We haven't passed a tax cut on people's income taxes since 1921, almost 100 years that Missourians have seen their income taxes increase and never go down. So we're trying to, these difficult economic times to try to keep the economy, get the economy back on track, we're trying to reduce the tax burden on individuals and do it in a way where it doesn't affect the state. So House bill 253 is designed to cut taxes if and in the event that the Missouri revenue increases by over $100 million. So if the revenue increases from year to year by more than $100 million, then we will reduce people's income taxes by 20th of a percent. It seems like a small amount, but after 10 years, then that ends up being a significant tax cut. So the idea is that we want to help Missourians but keep, but not at the same time, not necessarily grow the size of government when we don't need to. Is this the bill that Governor Nixon vetoed? Yes, unfortunately he is vetoed the bill. He thinks that this will cause cuts to be made to some of the programs in the state. I'm more concerned, and many of my colleagues are more concerned about the cuts that tax payers are having to make in these times and so we have a difference in philosophy about that and hopefully we can override the governor's veto. Okay. Well you were telling me about a tax credit that has come up that would be near to my heart involving amateur sports. Yes. And then that's a done past the old days. Yes, yes. You know, we appropriate money in the state. We think the education is an important part of where a tax dollars go and part of that education is amateur sports, high school and collegial level sports. But what's unfortunate is that when students go to national or regional tournaments in other states, we lose taxpayer dollars because families travel to those states and they drop their dollars in those hotel rooms and those restaurants and so we want those events to happen in Missouri. What we've, this tax credit is designed to just pay for some of the minimal costs of hosting these regional and national tournaments. So NCAA basketball is a big deal and we want to be a state that hosts tournaments like that or late country soccer tournaments or Springfield. We have homeschool basketball tournaments and they bring in tremendous amounts of economic revenue into the state of Missouri and into Springfield and we want to encourage that. And so the way this bill is designed is that we pay for very simple things like officiating, costs, cleaning fees, maybe the facility rental fees and by doing that we're the tail wagging the dog. So we make the event locate here and then the families come and spend their money in this state. Great. Good stuff. I wanted to ask you, you were in a scary situation on I-44. Oh yeah. Right? Are you all right? Yes. And what happened? Well, thankfully we have great guidewires that are in the median and so someone was unfortunately they were taking a controlled substance and driving and they hit myself and five other vehicles on the highway and my car spun into some guidewires. I'm very thankful they were there. Okay. Well, we're glad that you're doing well. Yes, thank you. And sounds like a good legislative session and the next one to come here now, right? Yes. Hopefully we'll have a, you know, I think we've done a great job this year and look forward to what we can do next year. Okay. We've got Eric's website, Eric Burleson.com for information about to Missouri's 103rd legislative 133rd legislative district serving Western Springfield and the city of battlefield again there. Eric Burleson.com. Thanks to Eric and join us next time when you get the opportunity to get the full story from the most reliable sources exclusively on media comm news leaders.