From the desk of Missouri House Representative District 155 Travis Smith
Greetings from the Capitol in Jefferson City. Session began last week and my hope is that we are able to pass some meaningful legislation in the upcoming months. One subject we always hear about from constituents are taxes, particularly Personal Property Taxes. Unfortunately, under this current Presidential Administration, inflation has gone thru the roof, especially the cost of automobiles. Because of those new values given to automobiles, most property taxes have greatly increased as well. For instance, at our house we have a GMC Truck and a Jeep. Those two items cost my family almost as much as our house and 70+ acres of land, which is simply unacceptable. Therefore, we are working on legislation that can counter this hyperinflation and give people some much needed tax relief. We had a similar piece passed last year in the House but it never made it out of the Senate. Everyone here at the Capitol is hoping this year’s senate can get this passed as well.
On a positive note, people are starting to come back to capitol again in great numbers. We already have planned for three different organizations and four schools to come and visit between now and February. I constantly remind people that this is their institution. It does not belong to lobbyists, elected officials or bureaucrats. It belongs to the people and there is not a day that goes by in which I am not thankful for the people that had the faith to put us here. I take great care in this position to help any constituent when they need help with any level of government, especially on a state level. The state of Missouri is no different from any other organization now in finding employees. The people we have working work long hours and do the best they can to help with the needs of the people. However, because there are so few of them work tends to pile up simply due to the massive amount of paperwork. I have heard from constituents that they have been put on hold for almost an hour at a time. Do not let that happen to you and let us help you. Simply call our office at 573-751-2042 and we will begin working on helping you the second after you hang up the phone. We cannot solve all the problems but most of the time we have a high success rate and we will always work hard to get the job done. We are here to help you.
God bless you and your families. I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.
