Missouri: Cut School Funding, But Don't Tax Yachts

The Republican philosophy in a nutshell, courtesy of McClatchy’s Kansas City Star:

Cash-strapped legislators have recommended spending cuts for Missouri schools and shelters for battered women, but so far the yachting class can enjoy another season of clear sailing.

Thanks to a longstanding tax exemption, Missouri’s marina set can opt to pay a small fee in lieu of sales taxes and shave as much as $30,000 off the purchase of a $500,000 boat.

That tax exemption alone is depriving state and local coffers of more than $6 million a year, according to some estimates. It’s just one of more than 130 untaxed transactions that are getting renewed attention in Jefferson City because of the state’s continuing budget crisis.

A million levels of ugly. Someone better get on this, fast. Perhaps Rush Limbaugh could throw his considerable weight behind an emergency initiative to provide some more-robust relief to the already-beleaguered yacht-owners (which might actually include Limbaugh himself; I have no idea how much property he still owns in Cape Girardeau, if any). Just do something, anything – and double-quick – to help out those poor, poor yacht owners! Oh, the humanity!