“If you want to compete, you have to get rid of the personal income tax!” – Governor Rick Perry (R-TX)

I started my day yesterday by participating in a presentation regarding tax reform. More specifically the elimination of the personal income tax and replacing it with a consumer driven tax. Of course the opposition to tax reform was represented and continued to provide distorted information about the proposal. I’ll address those misrepresentations in a separate blog post.

Then last evening I was invited to be a guest to listen to Governor Rick Perry. He gave a great speech and stated twice that if Missouri wanted to compete with Texas, we have to get rid of our personal income tax! Texas has a lot going on. It’s created nearly half the jobs created in the country in the last two years and have done so without stimulus money!

Critics will point out that Texas also has oil although they cant usually tell you how much that contributes to their economy. It’s less than you think. It’s true that Texas has some resources that Missouri doesn’t but when Texas works on attracting jobs, it’s the absence of an income tax that Texas uses the most to attract those jobs!

Prime example is the recent battle in Washington state to institute an income tax but of course, only on the “rich”. During the campaign, Governor Perry sent letters to the top 90 businesses in Washington telling them that if Washington didn’t want them, Texas sure did. One of his primary selling points was that Texas didn’t have an income tax and didn’t want one! Here is a news report that captures the exchange “Texas Governor to Washingtonians:”

Fortunately the people of Washington state weren’t confused by the false promise of only taxing the “rich”, a mere 3% of Washington’s population, and rejected the income tax with a 65% vote!

Missourians will have the opportunity in 2012 to decide whether they want a more prosperous state with no personal income tax that can at least compete on the same level with Texas and 8 other states without an income tax. If they give it the same level of consideration that Washingtonians gave to rejecting the income tax, they will adopt a no personal income tax position and the results will be positive for Missouri’s economic future.