… some activists are willing to go straight to the people, including Missouri “mega-millionaire” Rex Sinquefield, as Bloomberg Businessweek describes:

Rex Sinquefield likes to write big checks. In 2010 he spent $11.3 million to bankroll a successful ballot initiative banning new local income taxes in Missouri. Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure. That was just a warm-up for a much bigger effort this year: repealing Missouri’s state income tax.

A retired financial industry executive—he helped devise the first Standard & Poor’s index funds in 1973 and co-founded the asset management firm Dimensional Fund Advisors—Sinquefield explains his free-market vision in the parlor of his century-old St. Louis mansion. Income taxes “punish work,” stymie growth, and are “a horrible way to raise money,” he says. Sinquefield, who won’t divulge his net worth, is convinced that if he succeeds in repealing Missouri’s income tax, “other states will follow. I know they will.”

Unlike other conservative businessmen such as Sheldon Adelson and Foster Friess, who are pouring millions of dollars into super PACs supporting Republican presidential candidates, Sinquefield, 67, is using his wealth to bypass the political establishment and appeal directly to voters. So far, he’s spent $2.5 million on a campaign to gather enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot, and he anticipates he’ll spend far more promoting the initiative from now until Election Day.

Missouri isn’t the only state that would benefit from tax reform. Roy Cordato has spelled out good ideas for addressing the issue in the Tar Heel State.