After more than an hour and a half of debate on the floor, 94 members voted in favor of overriding the veto and 67 against it, falling well short of the 109 votes needed to defeat the veto.

Mr. Nixon, a Democrat, prevailed against a Legislature with Republican supermajorities in both chambers on a core Republican issue. Barnstorming the state through the summer, he argued that the tax cut would decimate financing for education, mental health and other vital services. He scoffed at the Republican argument that the cuts would bring businesses and jobs to the state.

“With the economy we’ve got right now, the thing that employers say to me is, ‘I need trained workers, I need people with math and science backgrounds, I need people that are good in it,’” Mr. Nixon said in an interview last week. “They don’t say to me, ‘Get me a third of a point less on some tax line somewhere.’”

Mr. Nixon enraged some opponents by withholding $400 million in state spending that he said he could not release if the tax cut became law. He successfully stitched together a broad coalition of support from education interests, with more than 100 school boards across the state passing resolutions to sustain the governor’s veto.

During debate on the tax bill in the House on Wednesday, lawmakers stuck largely to political talking points. Supporters said it was essential to making Missouri business friendly, while opponents contended that it would deal a blow to financing crucial educational and other services.

Representative T.J. Berry, the bill’s Republican sponsor, accused the governor of misleading the public as he spoke on the House floor on Wednesday, urging his colleagues to override the veto. The 109 votes required for an override was identical to the number of Republicans in the chamber.

“The intent is a perfect intent,” Mr. Berry said. “We want to help the people of Missouri grow, and if we do not grow, we will be down here fighting over smaller and smaller pies, trying to provide the services that we all want.”

Hundreds of protesters descended on the Capitol and packed the legislative chambers to push for overrides of the governor’s vetoes. They rallied outside the building before lawmakers gathered. Many wore green T-shirts from the Grow Missouri Coalition, which has been one of the chief advocates calling for an override of Mr. Nixon’s veto. Others wore stickers that read, “I support Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act,” a reference to a bill that would prevent federal gun laws from being enforced in the state.

Efforts to override the gun bill hit a bump this week when the Republican floor leader in the Senate, Ron Richard, said he was withdrawing his support for the bill because of concerns over its legality.

In his veto message, Mr. Nixon wrote that “the federal government’s supremacy over the states’ “is as logically sound as it is legally well established.”

Neighboring Kansas passed a law this year that exempts all guns that are made and remain in the state from federal restrictions, as well as a bill that expands the right of concealed carry to public buildings.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/us/missouri-legislature-fails-to-override-tax-cut-veto.html?partner=rss&emc=rss