Keep taxing food, local government lobbyists tell Missouri lawmakers

City officials from around the state and lobbyists representing local governments came to a Senate committee hearing at the Capitol on Monday. They made a case against slashing local sales taxes on groceries, warning of potential cuts to essential services like police, emergency responders and street maintenance. Douglass said that the estimated $2.3 million annual impact on Sikeston would equate to cutting the city’s entire street and parks maintenance staffs and a quarter of the city’s police force. In Florissant, about $4.4 million of the city’s $38 million budget comes...