Voter’s Guide to
the Amendments.

Would require the election of the Jackson County assessor, removing the constitutional amendment that currently allows the county to appoint the assessor.

This amendment would make it nearly impossible for citizens to pass ballot measures using the Initiative Petition process. Missourians have used the initiative petition process in place since the early 1900’s, to institute important changes to state statutes and the constitution, but this amendment will likely bring that ability to a halt.

• Missouri voters already face strict deadlines and complicated petition requirements just to place a measure on the ballot and right now a simple majority of 51% of voters is needed to pass a ballot measure.
• Amendment 4 would require any citizen driven measure — but not legislative-initiated measures — to win a majority of votes in all eight of Missouri’s congressional districts in order to pass. Your vote can be cancelled by just ONE congressional district or just 7% of voters could vote down what the rest of the state approves.
• We should never vote to give up our own power and hand it over to politicians and the special interests who control them. Amendment 4 takes away our power to pass laws — leaving politicians and special interests with all the power.

This amendment is not simply about eliminating the state income tax. It is about replacing income-tax revenue with expanded sales and service taxes.

• Missouri currently has a graduated income tax, meaning that those who earn more pay more. Sales taxes work differently. Lower, fixed and middle-income households tend to spend a larger share of their income on taxable goods and services, so they pay a larger percentage of their income to sales taxes.
• The amendment gives the legislature broad authority to expand sales and service taxes to “any goods and services,” overriding the constitutional limits put in place by Missouri voters in 2016. It is highly likely that services that are not currently taxed (such as medicine, doctor visits, childcare, home repairs, personal care, etc.) will experience new or higher taxes as well to help make up the huge loss to state revenue.
• Changing from our graduated income tax to sales and service taxes will effectively shift the tax burden to lower- and middle-class Missourians, as well as those on a fixed income. The amendment specifically requires reductions to the “top rate” of the individual income tax. It does not require all brackets to be reduced proportionally.
• There is no timeline for eliminating all income taxes. Instead, the changes are tied to revenue growth. This creates the possibility of an appalling scenario: the upper income tax bracket rate comes down, new sales taxes are imposed on goods and services currently untaxed, but revenue doesn’t increase, so no further reductions are implemented. The result: the rest of us not in that highest tax bracket continue paying income tax and increased sales and service taxes to fund a tax reduction for those in the upper tax bracket.
• The amendment also states that we’re constitutionally prohibited from reinstating income taxes. If we approve this amendment, we’re stuck forever.