Candidates for governor make pitches to state chamber

Mixing politics and business

Missouri's five gubernatorial candidates sounded off on a variety of economic issues facing the state during the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry's 2016 State of Missouri Business event Thursday in Jefferson City.

Leading topics of discussion included solving the funding crisis for Missouri's transportation infrastructure and how best to support a pro-business climate in the state.

The 81 local chambers of commerce that make up the Missouri Chamber Federation identified supporting transportation infrastructure as their No. 1 priority this year. The debate is about how to fund it.

"Missouri voters have spoken: no more taxes, no more tolls, no more fees," retired businessman John Brunner, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, said, noting failed attempts at raising the fuel tax or increasing the general revenue tax. "It comes down to efficiency and savings in all 16 departments. My target goal: 3.8 percent savings - 3.8 percent savings brings a billion dollars to the bottom line."

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, also a Republican candidate, agreed Missouri residents have made it clear they do not support a tax increase as a solution.

"The voters have turned down chance after chance to put more funding in," Kinder said. "We've got to look at best practices from other states, including public-private partnership. We've got to look at the possibility of regional transportation districts - if five or seven or eight or nine counties want to go together, tax themselves to do improvements in their areas, that might be part of the solution."

Kinder also said he would seek to remove funding for the Missouri Highway Patrol from the state's fuel tax-funded transportation budget to the general revenue fund, freeing up $200 million for infrastructure improvements - a move other candidates have mixed feelings on.

"The first thing I would do is take the Highway Patrol off the gas tax, put them into general revenue," said Republican candidate Catherine Hanaway, former Missouri House speaker and U.S. Attorney. "As your governor, I'll make sure that MoDOT is spending every dollar efficiently, and we need to do something now."

Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster disagreed with the approach.

"Anyone who's worked at that Capitol up there knows that the Highway Patrol can stop just about anything that it wants to stop in that building, and they absolutely want to remain in the predictable funding structure the Missouri Department of Transportation provides them," Koster said. "I would not take money out of the general revenue fund in order to accomplish the goal. ... We are $500 million in arrears right now to the elementary and secondary education programs, so there's no way to rationalize taking $200 or $300 million out of general revenue and claim not to be taking it out of the pocket of 10- and 12-year-olds in this state."

Koster said he favors Republican Sen. Doug Libla's current proposal to raise Missouri's fuel tax by 3½ cents per gallon for diesel and by 1½ cents per gallon for other fuels, and as governor, he would be open to working with "forward-looking Republicans" to create a bipartisan solution.

Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL officer and the fourth Republican candidate, did not specify a plan but agreed solving the problem of transportation funding is a priority.

"Here in Missouri, we have to invest not only in our roads and our bridges but also in our ports," Greitens said. "We are under-invested in our infrastructure; we have to do that here in Missouri."

Addressing Missouri's regulations on businesses was another popular topic.

Kinder said he would open his governorship by freezing regulations, and Brunner said he would start with an audit of and strategic planning for all state government departments. Hanaway brought up the perennial topic of tort reform.

"It is long overdue. You know that it hits your bottom line in increased workers' comp costs, increased unemployment costs, frivolous lawsuits," Hanaway said. "If I am your governor, I will work with the chamber ... to make sure that we are no longer listed as among the five worst judicial hellholes in the country."

The reformative atmosphere also extended to the state's tax system.

"The income tax is too high at 6 percent," Kinder said. "Everyone in this room knows high-earning, high-net worth individuals who've chosen to become Floridians in the last 20 years - no income tax. That's hurting us when our most productive people leave."

Hanaway agreed, adding, "Our tax system is too complicated, too unpredictable, and in my opinion, we're overtaxed. ... I'm going to do it responsibly, but if I am governor, we will modernize, simplify and reduce taxes in this state."

Koster, however, disagreed with the idea Missouri's regulations are hurting businesses, citing factors like the state's recently overhauled unemployment insurance program, large-scale tort reform passed in 2005 and incremental tax cuts approved in 2014.

"Cutting red tape, reducing regulation - all of those things are essential," Greitens said. "But what is really striking is that when you talk to governors who've actually done this around the country ... the No. 1 thing that they point to is leadership. They say you have to have an open door, you've got to pick up the phone, you have to aggressively work with businesses outside of the state to welcome them into Missouri, and your businesses that are in the state, you have to be on their side."

To all four Republican candidates, being on the side of business means supporting right to work, while Koster pledged not to sign a right-to-work bill as governor.