GENERAL SUMMARY
341
Motor vehicle taxation in Missouri is lighter than in
many other states. The ratesfor thelicense tax are moderate,
and the two cent tax on gasoline is very low as compared
with the average for the United States. Many motor vehicles
escape taxation under the general property tax. A number
of cities levy a gasoline tax and collect motor vehicle license
taxes, with the result that motor vehicle taxation varies
throughout the state.
SOURCES OF ADDITIONAL REVENUE
Any estimate of the additional state revenues that will be
needed during the next few years must depend largely on
the position taken concerning (1) the financing of capital requirements
by means of a bond issue as compared with
current revenues; (2) the amount of additional maintenance
appropriations to institutions of higher learning, including
teachers’ colleges; (3) additional state aid for public school
purposes; and (4) additional state support for conservation
of the public health and care and treatment of the mentally
defective and feebleminded.
As has been seen, there is an administrative reason for
continuing the state tax on property. Another reason is the
impossibility of accurately estimating the receipts from the
income tax, if the system of administration is changed and
intangible property is exempted from the general property
tax.
A form of classified property tax providing for low rates
on intangible property does not seem to offer a solution of
the problem of reaching this form of property for taxation.
The experience of Kansas in recent years was so unfavorable,
that the low rate taxes on intangibles were abandoned.
The yield of the Missouri income tax may be augmented in
three ways: (1) by improving the administration; (2) by a
broadening of the tax base; and (3) by increasing the rates.
Improving the administration offers certain possibilities for
increasing the yield, although its effect cannot be accurately
estimated in advance. A broadening of the tax base, so as
to include all dividends in the personal income tax base,
would increase the yield, but,unless it were reasonably certain
