August sees the most dangerous ballot in Missouri history. Don’t be fooled | Opinion

In November, I hope to be elected to the Missouri Senate. But in August, I’m voting to keep it in check.

This August, Missouri voters will face two constitutional amendments that, taken together, represent the most dangerous transfer of power from citizens to politicians in our state’s history. Amendments 4 and 5 deserve to be defeated, decisively, along with all those who used their elected position to advance it to the ballot.

Amendment 4 is an assault on Missouri’s century-old citizen initiative petition process. For more than 100 years, that process has been the people’s most powerful check on government overreach. It is how working Missouri families won pay increases, expanded health care coverage, legalized cannabis and, most recently, secured reproductive rights. Amendment 4 would effectively kill that process. Worse, it would end majority rule as we know it, as under this proposal, a minority in a single district could veto the will of the statewide majority.

Think about that: A small fraction of the state could nullify what millions of Missourians support on the ballot. This is not reform. It is rigged math designed to insulate politicians from accountability.

Amendment 5, nicknamed the “Everything Tax” amendment, is no better. It opens the door to sky-high new sales taxes without requiring a public vote. It would strip residents of their constitutional right to weigh in on how they are taxed, and allow lawmakers to bypass the very taxpayer protections that voters already approved. Missourians didn’t fight for those protections just to have Jefferson City politicians sweep them aside at will.

What makes this moment especially alarming is how these two amendments work in tandem. Amendment 4 makes it nearly impossible for the people to push back through the ballot box. Amendment 5 then gives politicians unchecked authority over your tax dollars. Together, they ask voters to hand over long-held constitutional rights with absolutely no guardrails on how that consolidated power can be used.

It is no surprise that opposition to these measures is broad and bipartisan. Organized labor, the Missouri Realtors and civic groups across Missouri are standing together against this power grab. When such a diverse coalition agrees that something has gone too far, voters should pay attention.

Democrats stand for majority rule, transparency and keeping power where it belongs: in the hands of the people. In this, Missouri’s Democratic candidates are and should be considered the default conservative candidates this cycle, because they are the only ones who want to conserve anything.

These amendments are a brazen attempt by a Republican-controlled legislature to insulate itself from the accountability it increasingly fears. If Amendment 4 passes, the next time Missourians try to fix what politicians have broken, they might find the door has been locked from the inside.

Missourians, not Jefferson City politicians, should decide the big questions about taxes and constitutional rights. Vote no on Amendments 4 and 5 this August. Let’s keep it that way.

Keri Ingle of Lee’s Summit represents District 35 in the Missouri House of Representatives. She is a Democratic candidate for Missouri Senate District 8.