By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
State Representative Bill Falkner of St. Joseph is running for a second term, being challenged by political newcomer, Democrat Colby Murphy.
Falkner is a former city council member and St. Joseph Mayor and is proud of forming the Local Government Caucus in the state legislature.
“And our goal is not to kill the bill, it’s try to work with the bill handler in order to make it more acceptable to municipalities. It’s a win-win for everyone and that’s our goal,” Falkner tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “It’s been a great two years. I’ve been honored to serve St. Joe down in Jefferson City.”
Falkner also favors an issue which Missouri’s cities have longed for for some time: requiring online retailers to collect and remit the state sales tax. Falkner points out regular, brick and mortar stores collect the tax.
“It’s a revenue source for municipalities that should be collected and because we are not collecting those types of taxes, then we have to start looking at special taxes, whether it be a safety tax or any type of other tax, to help fill in the void, because of the revenue we’re not getting from the Internet sales tax,” according to Falkner.
Murphy is Executive Director of Medicaid and Veterans In-Home Division at Freudenthal Home Health of St. Joseph.
Murphy says education is a priority of his and he says the first step the state needs to take is to quit cutting education funding.
“So, the first thing that we need to do for both local, K-through-12 and higher education, is to stop cutting from it and to actually reinvest in it,” Falkner says during his time on the KFEQ Hotline. “Not to sound cheesy, but our children really are our future. They’re going to decide what this next century looks like and we are doing them no fair justice by undercutting their education.”
Murphy says Missouri needs to improve its roads and bridges and he says an increase in the state gas tax would provide the money needed.
“I still hold that I think the best option would be an increase in the gas tax,” according to Murphy. “I know ‘tax’ is a dirty word in America for a lot of people, but as I stated in the (St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce) forum, Missouri’s gas tax is 17-cents per gallon. If you look at our neighbors, Kansas and Iowa, theirs are 37 and 24 and their roads are so much better than ours.”
The 10th state representative district is comprised of downtown and mid-town St. Joseph.