Issues
Long Spoons Coalition
Across Missouri, families are setting priorities and making difficult choices. Many are having serious discussions across kitchen tables about how their core values will guide them as they make decisions about work, spending and saving. Out of love parents will sacrifice for children, adult children for parents and siblings and extended family will help those who cannot help themselves. A functional family will be honest with each other, as fair as they can be and will understand that to remain healthy, not one person can be left out and each member must feed and be fed with those long spoons.
The budget of our state is also a moral document based on core values that must guide us as we set priorities and make difficult choices. The long spoons coalition proposes to promote an in depth dialogue on our budget process, our tax system and the unmet needs of so many of our neighbors who are experiencing cuts to life saving services. Given a voice in the process we believe that the people of Missouri would support spending our hard earned tax dollars to save lives and promote the common good. Given a choice we believe that the people of Missouri would choose to contribute to and help each other with fiscally responsible and accountable programs that provide education, grow jobs and make access to health care within the reach of every member of our Missouri family.
Join Coalition
February 3, 2009 Press Release
Coalition Members
Missouri Income Tax Revision Proposal Summary
Frequently Asked Questions About Missouri's Income Tax Revision Proposal
Overview of 2006 State & Local Taxes Paid
Legislative Priorities
The Missouri IMPACT Board of Directors has set the priorities listed below for the 2009 legislative session. Updates on each of these issues will be sent to MO IMPACT Partners for Justice every Friday throughout the legislative session (January-May).
Health Care/Medicaid Reform
Theological Premise: God desires wholeness in body, mind, and spirit, for all members of the human family; God's justice mandates special provision for the poor and vulnerable.
IMPACT continues to work for restoring Medicaid funding to those affected by recent cuts as well as others. IMPACT believes that no one including working families, the elderly, and the disabled, should be left without health care coverage. Last year the legislature authorized revisions on the Medicaid program and renamed it MO HealthNet.
Governor Blunt has proposed a new health care structure called Insure Missouri. This program is a privately run managed care program for working adults with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level. IMPACT will continue to work with coalition partners to evaluate this and other health care proposals during the legislative session.
Education
Theological Premise: The pursuit of knowledge and the quest for truth are essential for a vital faith and for vibrant life in a free society.
IMPACT affirms that public school education is every child's civil right. Public education is the cornerstone of our social, economic, and political structure and is of utmost significance in the development of our moral, ethical, and cultural values. Missouri IMPACT calls upon its members and partners to support positive legislative action which increases and fairly distributes funding for public education. To view Missouri IMPACT's theological statement on public education, please click here.
Tax Reform/Tax Justice
Theological Premise: All human beings, even those who have committed grievous wrongs; are loved by God and, by God's grace, can be transformed. Likewise, God created humans to live in community and to be in peace and harmony with one another and the human family.
IMPACT asserts that Missouri continues to be in a deep financial crisis. Over the past several years, Missouri has cut more than $5 billion in state services to education, health care, mental health care, and child welfare services. IMPACT will oppose all efforts to cut taxes and reduce state revenues. IMPACT will support increased state individual income and state corporate income taxes that will produce more adequate revenue to meet the basic needs of its citizens and promote the common good with taxes that are just and fair and based upon ability to pay. IMPACT believes that tax revenues are the primary source of Missouri's investment in the well being of its citizens and the common good of all. To view Missouri IMPACT's theological statement on tax reform/tax justice, please click here.
Restorative Justice
Theological Premise: All human beings, even those who have committed grievous wrongs, are loved by God and, by God's grace, can be transformed. Likewise, God created humans to live in community and to be in peace and harmony with one another and the human family.
What is Restorative Justice? How do we handle harm, conflict, hurts, and offenses when such hurt and harm touches the life of the community, the school, faith communities and individuals. Most often in our society it is through retaliation, retribution or punishment. Restorative justice is about giving all parties involved in a conflict the opportunity to take an active role in a safe and respectful process that allows open dialogue between the victim, offender and the community. For offenders, it is about taking responsibility and being held accountable for the harm caused. For victims, it provides an opportunity to talk about the harm caused and ask questions that may be necessary as a part of the healing process. For communities surround the victim and offender, it provides an understanding of the root causes of the conflict.
Missouri IMPACT seeks to support not only legislative changes but wholesome changes in the juvenile and adult justice systems, in school policies, neighborhoods and communities where clearly the implementation of restorative principles and practices can make for a more peaceful and wholesome community life.
Death Penalty: IMPACT has historically gone on record in opposition to the death penalty for the following reasons:
- The conviction that it is a moral offense and is fundamentally incompatible with our commitment to peace and justice;
- The lack of evidence that it is a deterrent to violent crime and murder;
- The lack of fairness in administering the death penalty; and
- The perpetration of violence by the state contributes to a culture of violence.
The concept of restorative justice must be incorporated in all levels of the criminal justice system in the state of Missouri. To view Missouri IMPACT's theological statement on restorative justice, please click here.
Immigration
Theological Premise: Our faith traditions reveal God's special concern, i.e., God's bias, for the poor, the marginalized, and the sojourner in our midst.
IMPACT believes that all people should be treated with dignity and respect; that all human beings have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and that all persons have the right not to be discriminated against based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. In keeping with these principles as it relates to current and future Missouri legislation we affirm that:
- Undocumented immigrants need an opportunity to integrate into the community in which they live;
- Immigration laws need to be reformed to reflect our economy's needs; and
- Missouri should offer basic humanitarian assistance, such as food and health care, without regard to legal status.
To view Missouri IMPACT's theological statement regarding Immigration, please click here.
Predatory Lending
Theological Premise: Usury and other forms of economic exploitation of the poor and vulnerable are condemned by our faith traditions.
IMPACT will continue to monitor the implementation of legislation affecting the payday loan industry while exploring additional areas where the working poor are preyed upon by unscrupulous lenders.