Missouri voters face key amendments on the 2026 ballot. I’m concerned | Opinion

Missouri voters will weigh in on several constitutional amendments this year — perhaps as early as August — addressing county government, abortion rights, the initiative petition process and state tax policy. The Kansas City Star’s Opinion team has weighed in on the issues at stake in each measure over the past legislative sessions.

Friday, Gov. Mike Kehoe announced two amendments that he moved to the August primary: Amendments 4 (direct democracy) and 5 (power to replace the personal income tax with sales tax). That leaves the remainder of several other amendments for the November ballot, including Amendment 2 (direct election of assessors) and 3 (repeal of abortion rights). With the help of my Opinion team, here’s my thoughts on Amendments 2, 3, 4 and 5:

Amendment 2 would require the direct election of assessors in every county. If passed, Jackson County would then have to elect its assessor, ending its status as the only charter county in Missouri without an appointed assessor, as detailed in The Star’s endorsement of Question 1 last year. The voters passed it, but would have to wait until the next general election in 2028 to vote for an assessor. If Amendment 2 passes, all counties will elect its assessor.

In Jackson County, the push for an elected assessor followed the recall of County Executive Frank White and backlash over unchecked property assessment increases that prompted the Jackson County Legislature to put the question before voters.

Deciding if a county assessor should be an elected official or an appointed one is a significant choice. If future assessors are elected, residents will be required to be diligent, research the options and actively participate in the voting process. It would fall upon the candidates to demonstrate their qualifications for the role. Given the current climate where the voices of voters are frequently marginalized, increasing accountability remains a priority.

Amendment 3 would repeal the abortion rights amendment that passed with 53% of the vote in 2024. It would ban nearly all abortions except in medical emergencies or pregnancies resulting from rape or incest during the first 12 weeks, reversing the reproductive rights measure that voters affirmed, and that The Star endorsed last year.

The Opinion team long has argued that placing reproductive rights in Missouri’s constitution would make it more difficult for judges to curtail health care access, noting that the state’s pre-2024 abortion laws were among the most restrictive in America. I agree. A woman deserves health care choice and access. I strongly suggest the state should not repeal the 2024 vote. Perhaps most important, this leads into the next amendment, which deals with abiding by the voters’ choices in elections.

Amendment 4 would raise the threshold for voter-approved constitutional amendments, a change Republican lawmakers have pushed after voters used the initiative process to enact abortion rights, recreational marijuana, Medicaid expansion and minimum wage increases. The Missouri Constitution has for more than a century protected the people’s right to propose and enact laws independent of the General Assembly, a power voters have repeatedly used when lawmakers refused to act.

Any significant change to Missouri’s initiative petition process is fundamentally antidemocratic. For more than a century, the state constitution has protected the people’s right to propose and enact laws independently of politicians. This power has been a vital tool for voters when lawmakers have refused to act on pressing issues. Recently, Missourians have used this process to enact meaningful changes, including the legalization of recreational marijuana, the expansion of Medicaid and increases to the state’s minimum wage.

The proposed changes under Amendment 4, championed by Republican lawmakers, seek to raise significantly the threshold required for voter-approved constitutional amendments. By making it more difficult for citizens to pass initiatives, this measure thwarts future progress and undermines the expressed will of the people. It is a direct challenge to a long-standing democratic tradition in the state and must be firmly resisted by voters in the upcoming elections next year.

Amendment 5, Gov. Mike Kehoe’s top legislative priority, would give lawmakers power to expand sales taxes to almost all sales transactions to raise revenue to replace the personal income tax, a proposal tied to Kehoe’s broader tax-cutting agenda.

Missouri income tax revenue flows into the state’s general revenue fund, which is used to pay for a wide variety of state government operations, public services and infrastructure. The biggest unknown is whether any other taxes, such as sales taxes, can replace that revenue. Missouri’s recent capital gains tax cut was expected to cost $160 million, but actually drained roughly $500 million in state revenue, echoing the disastrous tax experiment under former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.

With the loss of income tax revenue, can we guarantee that consumers will make up the difference? Will the average person, even without an income tax, spend enough (thus generating sale tax)? I can’t say I will. Will you?

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.