The Kansas City Star’s endorsement in Ozarks casino build and sheriff pension tax | Opinion
Here are our recommendations for Amendments 5 and 6 for the general election in Missouri. For more information about the Nov. 5 election, check out our Voter Guide, a collaboration between The Kansas City Star and the KC Media Collective. See all our published endorsements on our Elections Recommendations page.
Amendment 5
Amendment 5 on the Missouri ballot would allow developers to build a casino business near the Lake of the Ozarks, “on the Osage River from the Missouri River to the Bagnell Dam.” We recommend a yes vote on Amendment 5.
Voters may wonder why this issue is on a ballot. A developer who wants to build a new hotel, or shopping center, typically doesn’t need statewide permission, and certainly not an amended state constitution.
Riverboat gambling is, of course, different. In 2008, at the behest of operating boats that feared competition, voters amended the state constitution to cap the number of river-adjacent gambling platforms. Currently, there are 13 gaming boats in Missouri.
The only way to add to that total is to amend the constitution, which is what Amendment 5 is about.
We see no reason to prevent a casino in the Osage River location. In fact, increased competition for local casinos would be a good thing, and should be encouraged.
The Osage River boat would also mean jobs and some tax revenue, although those claims can be exaggerated. Instead, we recommend a yes vote on the merits: Our Ozarks neighbors should have the same access to this entertainment as Kansas Citians and other residents.
Amendment 6
We strongly recommend a no vote on Amendment 6 in Missouri, which would allow courts to collect extra fees from guilty defendants to fund a pension program for sheriffs and prosecutors.
People who pay speeding tickets shouldn’t be responsible for paying into the sheriffs’ pension fund. Yet from 2013 until 2021, that was the case: Municipal court clerks, at the direction of the state, collected a $3 fee on every ticket for speeding, or for a host of other municipal violations.
Circuit court clerks began collecting the fee in 1983.
The state Supreme Court found the practice illegal. It said — accurately — that the $3 fee was not “reasonably related to the expense of the administration of justice” and therefore violated the state’s constitution.
Amendment 6 would overturn that decision and could lead to a requirement that ticket-payers and other violators subsidize the sheriffs’ retirement fund, as well as prosecutors.
Three dollars doesn’t sound like much. But fees and costs add up on tickets: Kansas City’s municipal court can collect fees for crime victims compensation, courthouse restoration, domestic violence programs, mental health counseling and other reasons.
The extra fees on tickets are expensive, often more than $45 per violation. The fees often hurt those least able to pay them.
We think the General Assembly or county commissions and legislatures can increase contributions to the retirement fund, which is now allowed by law. Currently employed sheriffs can increase their contributions, too.
Sheriffs should not be able to retire on the backs of the poor. Vote no on Amendment 6.