JEFFERSON CITY — Earlier today, State Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, announced plans to make a motion to override the governor’s vetoes of Senate Bill 1025 and House Bill 1631. Sponsored by the senator, SB 1025 seeks to restore instructional classes given at dance studios, gymnastics facilities and other fitness facilities to the same designation as educational classes.
“The governor’s claim that Senate Bill 1025 is trying to ‘chip away at an area of law that has consistently been applied by the Missouri Supreme Court and diligently followed by the Department of Revenue’ is simply false,” said Sen. Kraus. “Until the Supreme Court made their interpretation in 2008, the tax on instructional classes was not uniformly being collected. From that time, the law has not been diligently enforced by the DOR. Businesses that offer these instructional classes have only been made aware of the tax through audits performed by the department, and there are still many who do not know if they should be collecting the tax. I do not believe it was ever the intention of the General Assembly to tax these types of classes, just as we do not tax other educational classes.”
In addition, Sen. Kraus disagrees with the governor’s veto of House Bill 1631. Provided the House successfully overrides the veto, Sen. Kraus also plans to make a motion to override the veto of HB 1631, which he carried in the Senate. House Bill 1631 implements a photo identification requirement for voters; if overridden, it will only go into effect if voters approve its companion referendum, House Joint Resolution 35, in November.
“People expect integrity in their elections, and an election does not go by without accusations of some type of election fraud,” said Sen. Kraus. “With election fraud possibly occurring in every other aspect of elections, it is hard to believe voter impersonation fraud is somehow non-existent, but there happens to be no real mechanism to be sure. Presenting a utility bill as identification is hardly sufficient to prove someone’s identity,” Kraus said.