Kansas, Missouri Voters Reject Three Major Amendments
Voters in Kansas and Missouri rejected three sweeping constitutional changes Tuesday, refusing to eliminate Missouri’s individual income tax, raise the threshold for citizen-led amendments or replace Kansas’ judicial-selection system with statewide Supreme Court elections.
The Aug. 4 primary results leave major parts of both states’ governing structures intact. Missouri voters also renewed sales tax funding for state parks and conservation and required Jackson County to begin electing its assessor.
Unofficial Missouri returns Wednesday showed nearly 80 percent voting against Amendment 4, which would have required so-called citizen constitutional amendments to receive majority support in each of the state’s eight congressional districts. The change would have brought the state closer to the process used for changing the U.S. Constitution. Under current law, an amendment passes with a simple statewide majority.
The amendment also would have required the full text of an initiative petition to be made available with voters’ ballots. Its defeat preserves the existing statewide approval standard with proponents of the failed amendment saying the state will now continue to be influenced by outside groups and dark money.
Missourians rejected Amendment 5 by an even larger margin, with more than 82 percent voting no. The measure would have required the General Assembly to phase out the individual income tax as state revenue grew. It also would have authorized expanded sales and use taxation to replace some of the lost revenue.
As Metro Voice News reported before the election, Missouri’s top individual income-tax rate is 4.7 percent. The state also has lower property-tax rates, vehicle-registration costs and certain transaction taxes than several states without an individual income tax.
Two less contentious Missouri amendments passed easily.
Amendment 1 renewed for another 10 years the existing one-tenth-of-one-percent sales and use tax supporting soil and water conservation, state parks and historic sites. The tax generates approximately $140 million annually, according to the Missouri secretary of state’s official ballot summary.
Amendment 2 will require all charter counties to elect their assessors and follow state training requirements. The practical effect falls on Jackson County, the only Missouri county where the assessor was appointed rather than elected.
Across the state line, Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have replaced the state’s Supreme Court nominating process with direct elections by the public. The unofficial margin was about 59 percent against and 41 percent in favor. Currently, 21 states directly elect their Supreme Court Justices, including Missouri.
The vote keeps the controversial nine-member Supreme Court Nominating Commission. That body, which FEC records shows overwhelmingly donates to Democratic candidates, submits three finalists to the governor, who makes the appointment. Justices then face voters in retention elections.
Under the rejected proposal, the seven justices would have run for six-year terms beginning in staggered elections in 2028, according to the Kansas secretary of state’s ballot language.
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–Metro Voice and our news research assistant.
