1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

I stand in strong opposition to SB864 (Bean), SB913 (Gregory), and HB2713 (Diehl), bills that would make a suite of corporate welfare tax credits permanent. These bills represent a fundamental failure of policy vision. they choose to lock Missouri into a system of permanent corporate welfare for industries like biofuels and large-scale meat processing, rather than investing in a truly equitable and sustainable future for our communities. These tax credits transfer public wealth into private hands with no meaningful guarantees for workers—no requirement to pay family-sustaining wages, allow unionization, or ensure safe jobs. We should not be subsidizing exploitation. Furthermore, these credits are a form of greenwashing, not genuine climate action. The biodiesel credit, for instance, includes loopholes for environmentally destructive palm oil. Meanwhile, a token $5,000 credit for urban farms is a band-aid that fails to address the root causes of food apartheid or the corporate stranglehold on our food system. By removing all sunset provisions, these bills make these flawed programs unaccountable. they create a permanent "shadow budget" of lost revenue that will never face public scrutiny again, handing our state's economic planning over to industry lobbyists instead of the people. The revenue foregone by these permanent giveaways should be reclaimed through taxing wealth and corporate profits, and then directly invested in the public good: in universal green transit, in worker-owned cooperatives, and in democratically-controlled community resources. I urge you to vote NO on SB864, SB913, and HB2713. Let these ineffective market tweaks expire. Our duty is to build a just economy that works for all Missourians, not to sign a blank check for corporate interests.