Wright City R-II School Board members voted 7-0 to oppose a so-called fair tax proposal that would replace individual and corporate income taxes with an expanded sales tax throughout Missouri. The vote came at the board’s April 7 meeting. Since 2004, sales tax revenue overall in Missouri has either declined or showed no growth. A loss of revenue would inevitably mean cuts to school operations, according to district officials. “If enough sales tax revenue isn’t generated, then the (funding) formula would be underfunded,” said Wright City Superintendent Chris Gaines. “And then we’re going to have to make cuts. “Some folks who are advocates for the fair tax resolution are saying that there is a stable source of revenue, but that’s not the case,” he added. Gaines said rising unemployment has hurt the school district. “As people buy less, we receive less,” he said. “As unemployment goes up, the unemployed don’t pay their taxes and buy as much stuff. We need more people employed to get our revenue back up. “With the dedicated sales tax, we’ve seen the number drop off on a per person basis,” Gaines added. Gaines and Board President Austin Jones are concerned over the potential lack of revenue an expanded sales tax could generate. According to Gaines, many “Fair Tax” proposals he has seen utilize a sales tax of 7 percent. “If we’re going to go to the next tax structure, at minimum, we should be revenue neutral,” he said. “The sales tax structure should generate the same amount statewide as income tax does. Seven percent is not adequate to keep revenue neutral. It needs to be around 11 to 15 percent.” “I don’t know if the rates (proposed) would replace state revenue,” said Jones. State Rep. Bart Korman was present at the board meeting. “The fair tax resolution is a huge thing,” he said. “There will be a huge change if it is enacted. I’m still weighing all the options, but I’m leaning against it because we still need to keep the same amount of revenues. We need the same amount of money to fund the government at the same level.” Gaines said he has been told that fair tax proponents would be willing to spend $30-40 million to get the proposition passed. “They’ve submitted a slew of petitions to the secretary of state’s office,” he said. “There’s a lot of money behind it.” Gaines and Korman said they anticipate seeing a proposition on the November ballot in 2012. “We’ll know more as 2012 progresses,” said Gaines. “Legislators have to get the signatures required and my anticipation is that they’ll pay for those signatures. They’ll spend money pushing it.” “Most likely, it’ll be going to the vote of the people,” Korman said. In the event of having to make cuts, Gaines said the school district would follow a strict regimen as to where it could afford to make cuts. “We made cuts last year during the spring for this year,” he said. “Making cuts is a defined process and anything we do, we’ll go through that process again. “We looked at ideas against criteria and got feedback from the school staff and community and put together a list of things for board action,” Gaines added. “We have multiple simulations run.” He said he felt the reason for a fair tax resolution was two-pronged. “The first is the ideological belief that there is a better way to do something,” Gaines said. “The second is how might (legislators) push something for which (they) personally benefit.” A deadline of May 6 has been set for fair tax resolution proposal. “I don’t see legislators having any trouble meeting that deadline,” Gaines said. “We’ll know more after they’re done.”