VOTERS TO DECIDE FIVE STATEWIDE BALLOT MEASURES
The Secretary of State has certified five initiatives on the Nov. 5 election, three proposed by citizens plus two proposed by the General Assembly.
Missourians for Healthy Families & Fair Wages proposed to guarantee that Missouri workers can earn up to seven paid sick days per year and to gradually raise the minimum wage to $15/hour. Proposition A asks: Do you want to amend Missouri law to:
- Increase minimum wage January 1, 2025 to $13.75 per hour, increasing $1.25 per hour each year until 2026, when the minimum wage would be $15.00 per hour;
- Adjust minimum wage based on changes in the Consumer Price Index each January beginning in 2027;
- Require all employers to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours worked;
- Allow the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to provide oversight and enforcement; and
- Exempt governmental entities, political subdivisions, school districts, and education institutions?
Winning for Missouri Education, an organization of Missouri sports franchises, proposed a constitutional amendment to legalize sports betting online and in person. Amendment 2 asks: Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
- Allow the Missouri Gaming Commission to regulate licensed sports wagering including online sports betting, gambling boats, professional sports betting districts and mobile licenses to sports betting operators;
- Restrict sports betting to individuals physically located in the state and over the age of 21;
- Allow license fees prescribed by the Commission and a 10% wagering tax on revenues and received to be appropriated for education after expenses incurred by the Commission and required funding of the Compulsive Gambling Prevention fund; and
- Allow for the general assembly to enact laws consistent with this amendment?
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom proposed Amendment 3 to overturn the state’s current strict ban and legalize abortion until fetal viability. The final ballot summary asks: Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
- establish a right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives, with any governmental interference of that right presumed invalid;
- remove Missouri’s ban on abortion;
- allow regulation of reproductive health care to improve or maintain the health of the patient;
- require the government not to discriminate, in government programs, funding, and other activities, against persons providing or obtaining reproductive health care; and
- allow abortion to be restricted or banned after Fetal Viability except to protect the life or health of the woman?
Amendment 6 (General Assembly’s SJR 71)
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to preserve funding of law enforcement personnel for the administration of justice.
Pros: Supporters of the amendment say this will ensure that every Missourian has access to the courts.
Cons: In 2020, the Missouri Supreme Court said a $3 fee that was charged on every court case in Missouri to fund the sheriffs’ retirement system was an unconstitutional “sale of justice.”
Amendment 7 (General Assembly’s SJR 78): Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
- Make the Constitution consistent with state law by only allowing citizens of the United States to vote;
- Prohibit the ranking of candidates by limiting voters to a single vote per candidate or issue; and
- Require the plurality winner of a political party primary to be the single candidate at a general election.
From 1910-2022, the General Assembly put 246 measures on the ballot and 133 passed. The Citizen Initiative Petition process has put 70 on the ballot and 29 passed.
