Overview
- The Missouri House, which voted 95-59 on Tuesday, sent a constitutional amendment to voters to phase down personal income taxes as revenue grows, with Gov. Mike Kehoe to set the ballot date by May 22.
- The measure authorizes lawmakers to expand the sales tax to goods and services not now taxed and allows sales-tax plans under it to bypass current constitutional bans tied to real estate transfers and untaxed items.
- After the Senate stripped out specific revenue triggers and baseline years from an earlier House plan, the final text leaves key design choices to future legislatures.
- Opposition groups and early polling signal headwinds, with a GOP firm finding voters opposed 49% to 37% and the Missouri Budget Project warning most households could pay more and state funding could drop by about $5 billion.
- Missouri gets roughly 65% of its state revenue from income taxes and about 25% from sales taxes, a gap critics say would require taxing more services or raising rates to replace lost dollars.