Missouri voters will decide on amendments to the state constitution

By John Sharp

Missouri voters will get to decide on two proposed amendments to the Missouri constitution that will be on the August 6 ballot, both of which require a majority of votes cast to be ratified.

Amendment 1

To address Missouri’s chronic shortage of childcare providers, the Missouri General Assembly voted during its 2023 legislative session to put Amendment 1 on the ballot to authorize it to pass legislation to exempt childcare facilities outside a child’s home from property tax.

The proposed constitutional amendment passed the Missouri Senate 33-0 and passed the House 91-27 with only 25 Republicans and 2 Democrats voting no. Florida and Texas recently have taken similar approaches to try to reduce their childcare shortages.

While most local governments did not formally submit any specific figures on how much lost revenue they expect from such a property tax exemption to be included in ballot language for the proposal, the state’s Blind Pension Fund estimated its annual lost revenue could be up to $400,000.

A 2023 Missouri Chamber of Commerce survey showed 80% of its members said difficulty finding childcare and its expense keeps a significant number of Missouri residents out of the workforce.  A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that over two-thirds of households with small children have all parents in the household in the labor force.

An earlier U.S. Chamber of Commerce study found that the lack of childcare costs the state’s economy about $1.35 billion annually, including $280 million in lost taxes.  That study determined that families paid an average of $656 a month for childcare, which has likely increased significantly since then.

Amendment 4

Voters will get to do a “do over” on Amendment 4 which they approved by a wide margin of 63.24% to 36.76% in November 2022 (although KCMO voters in Jackson County defeated it 38.54% to 61.46%) due to a recent Missouri Supreme Court ruling that the fiscal note for the measure that appeared on the ballot was “materially inaccurate and seriously misleading”.

Amendment 4 exempts any state law passed before the end of 2026 requiring Kansas City to increase funding for its understaffed police department from the constitutional requirement that any increase in funding for an activity the state requires local governments to make must be paid by the state.

The General Assembly put it on the ballot in 2022 to validate Senate Bill 678 passed that year which required KCMO to increase the percentage of its general revenue appropriated for its police department from 20% to 25% which otherwise would likely to have been found to violate the constitutional prohibition against unfunded state mandates to local governments.

The 2022 fiscal note summary for Amendment 4 said that state and local governments estimated no additional costs or savings related to the proposal, when in fact the city had made it clear that the legislation passed that year would require it to reallocate about $38.7 million annually.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in response to a lawsuit filed by KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas rewrote the ballot language and fiscal note for Amendment 4 that are on the August 6 ballot noting it would authorize the 2022 law requiring the city to increase funding for its police department from 20% to 25% of its general revenue, stating that would be “an increase of $38,743,646, though the City previously provided that level of funding voluntarily.”

What seems to be getting little media or public attention even though it is spelled out clearly in the revised ballot language is that the proposed amendment also authorizes any future state law passed before the end of 2026 that increases minimum funding for the Kansas City Police Department which could require much higher funding than 25% of the city’s general revenue.  The state would not be required to pay the cost if Amendment 4 passes.