**Legislators file to impeach governor**

Three legislators’ call to unseat Gov. Jay Nixon could find an ear in the House Judiciary Committee, its chairman said last week.

Committee chairman Stanley Cox, R-Sedalia, offered the would-be impeachers a hearing on the three articles of impeachment they’ve filed.

The call came first from Rep. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, who asserted that Nixon failed to fulfill his duty as governor to quickly fill vacant seats in the Statehouse.

The next complaint was filed with regard to Nixon’s handling of the scandal last year where the state’s Department of Revenue accidentally published the names and personal information of concealed carry permit holders.

The third and most recent article, from Rep. Nick Marshall, R-Parkville, alleges that Nixon violated the state constitution when he ordered that the Department of Revenue accept joint tax returns from same-sex couples who received a marriage license in another state.

Missouri is one of 31 states that bans same-sex marriage. The state voted to adopt an amendment in 2004 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. But Nixon has called his order “the only appropriate course of action” to make way for federal tax changes that last year allowed same-sex couples across the country to file together.

**Tax cut bill passes Senate, Nixon plans to veto**

Nixon pledged last week to shoot down a controversial tax cut.

Proposed by Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee’s Summit, the cut would lower the top tax rate for individual income from 6 percent to 5.5 percent. Kraus’s bill would also allow businesses to deduct up to 25 percent of their work-related expenses.

But Nixon, who vetoed a similar tax overhaul last year, said lowering taxes is a gamble and might not be worth the risk in the long run.

“It’s just not the time to be doing these risky fiscal experiments,” Nixon said at a rally last week.

Kraus’s bill is projected to cut $620 million in revenue for the state. Kraus and his cosponsors argue most of that loss will be made up for in consumer spending, and the deductions workers receive will influence them to pump money back into Missouri’s economy.