Seven ballot issues will be on the Nov. 6 general election ballot, and three of them are about marijuana, its use as a medicine and its source of tax revenue. The other four ballot measures are about reapportionment, administration of bingo games, raising the state’s minimum wage over the next five years and a higher tax on fuel to raise money for the state highway patrol.
Some of the issues were placed on the ballot by the constitutional right of initiative petition. In these cases, each proposition required at least 100,126 valid signatures, and each proposed amendment to the state constitution required at least 160,199 valid signatures, depending on how large the counties were where the signatures were collected.
Other issues were placed on the ballot by your representatives and senators in the Missouri General Assembly when it met earlier.
Here’s a quick look at the seven ballot issues:
Amendment No. 1
This measure, proposed by initiative petition, would amend the Missouri Constitution “to change the process and criteria for redrawing state legislative district boundaries during reapportionment (redistricting),” according to the secretary’s “Fair Ballot Language.”
The way it works now is that bipartisan House and Senate commissions redraw boundaries on maps. Those maps are adopted when 70 percent of the commissioners approve them.
This amendment will change that process to put the work into the hands of a state demographer chosen from a panel that is selected by the state auditor. That demographer will have the job of redrawing the boundaries to submit those maps to the House and Senate commissions.
“This amendment would then allow changes to the demographer’s maps only if 70 percent of the commissioners vote to make changes and do so within two months after receiving the maps from the state demographer,” according to the Fair Ballot Language.
Other aspects of this proposal are:
• Reduction of the limits on campaign contributions that candidates for state senator or state representative can accept from individuals or entities by $100 per election for a Senate candidate and $500 for a House candidate.
• Creation of a $5 limit on gifts that state legislators and their employees can accept from paid lobbyists or the lobbyists’ clients.
• Prohibiting state legislators and their employees from serving as paid lobbyists for a period of two years after the end of their last legislative session.
• Prohibition of political fundraising by candidates for or members of the state Legislature on state property.
• Requiring all legislative records and proceedings to be subject to the state open meetings and records law (Missouri Sunshine Law).
Cost to taxpayers: If passed, this measure will have no impact on taxes, according to the secretary of state.
Amendment No. 2
Proposed by initiative petition, this amendment would allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes under state laws.
“This amendment does not change federal law, which makes marijuana possession, sale and cultivation a federal offense,” the Fair Ballot Language notes.
Other aspects of this amendment are:
• Creation of regulations and licensing procedures for medical marijuana and medical marijuana facilities—dispensary, cultivation, testing and marijuana-infused product manufacturing facilities.
• Creation of licensing fees for such facilities.
• Imposition of a four-percent tax on the retail sale of marijuana for medical purposes by dispensary facilities.
• Forwarding of funds from the license fees and tax for use by the Missouri Veterans Commission for health and care services for military veterans, and by the Department of Health and Senior Services to administer the program to license/certify and regulate marijuana and marijuana facilities.
Cost to taxpayers: If passed, this measure will impose a four-percent retail sales tax on marijuana for medical purposes.
Amendment No. 3
Also proposed by initiative petition, this is another proposal to change the Missouri Constitution to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes under state laws.
Again, it should be noted that this amendment does not change federal law, which makes marijuana possession, sale and cultivation a federal offense.
Here is what it will do, if passed:
• Make Brad Bradshaw (the contact person on this initiative petition) the research chairperson of a newly-created research institute that is funded by fees and taxes on medical marijuana.
• Brad Bradshaw will select the members of the board that will govern the research institute, which will issue regulations and licensing procedures for medical marijuana and medical marijuana facilities—dispensary, cultivation, and marijuana-infused product manufacturing facilities.
• Creates licensing fees for such facilities.
• Impose a 15-percent tax on the retail sale of marijuana for medical purposes by dispensary facilities and a tax on the wholesale sale of marijuana flowers and leaves by cultivation facilities.
• Use of the funds generated by the license fees and taxes by the research institute for licensing and regulating marijuana and marijuana facilities, land acquisition and development, and conducting research with the purpose of developing cures and treatments for cancer and other incurable diseases.
Cost to taxpayers: If passed, this measure will impose a 15-percent retail sales tax on marijuana for medical uses and a wholesale sales tax on marijuana sold by medical marijuana cultivation facilities.
Amendment No. 4
Proposed by the General Assembly, this amendment will do two things:
• It will change the Missouri Constitution to remove language limiting bingo game advertising that a court ruled was unconstitutional and not enforceable.
• It will also allow a member of a licensed organization conducting bingo games to participate in the management of bingo games after being a member of the organization for six months. Currently, the constitution requires two years of membership.
Cost to taxpayers: If passed, this measure will have no impact on taxes.
Proposition B
Another proposal from the initiative petition process, this proposal will amend Missouri statutes to increase the state minimum wage rate as follows:
Proposition C
• $8.60 per hour beginning January 1, 2019;
• $9.45 per hour beginning January 1, 2020;
• $10.30 per hour beginning January 1, 2021;
• $11.15 per hour beginning January 1, 2022; and
• $12.00 per hour beginning January 1, 2023.
Government employers will be exempt.
Private sector employers will see an increase in the penalty for paying employees less than the minimum wage. Cost to taxpayers: If passed, this measure will have no impact on taxes.
Proposition C
This proposal from the initiative petition process goes at the marijuana question statutorily rather than by amending the Missouri Constitution.
It would allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes under state laws, but it will not change federal law, which makes marijuana possession, sale and cultivation a federal offense. Here’s what the proposition would do:
• Create regulations and licensing procedures for medical marijuana and medical marijuana facilities — dispensary, cultivation and production, and testing facilities.
• Create licensing fees for such facilities.
• Impose a two-percent tax on the retail sale of marijuana for medical purposes by dispensary facilities.
• Use the funds from the license fees by the Division of Liquor Control to administer the program to license/certify and regulate marijuana and marijuana facilities.
Use the funds from the tax for veterans’ services, drug treatment, early childhood education, and for public safety in cities with a medical marijuana facility.
Cost to taxpayers: If passed, this measure will impose a two-percent retail sales tax on marijuana for medical purposes.
Proposition D
Submitted to voters by the General Assembly, this proposition would raise funding for the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s enforcement and administration of motor vehicle laws and traffic regulations.
Source of the funding will be revenue from an increased state tax on motor fuel (including gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, and blended fuel). The current state motor fuel tax rate is 17 cents per gallon. The amendment will increase the rate as follows:
• 19.5 cents per gallon beginning July 1, 2019;
• 22 cents per gallon beginning July 1, 2020;
• 24.5 cents per gallon beginning July 1, 2021;
• 27 cents per gallon beginning July 1, 2022.
Other aspects of this proposition:
• Increasing the tax on alternative fuels used for motor vehicles (including compressed natural gas, liquid natural gas, and propane gas) from 17 cents to 27 cents per unit equivalent to a gallon of gasoline or diesel beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
Requiring the state auditor to audit the state’s use of the revenue generated by these taxes every two years.
• Allow a state income tax deduction for the value of any prize or award won in the Olympics, Paralympics, or Special Olympics.
• Creation of an “Emergency State Freight Bottleneck Fund,” which will be dedicated to financing road improvement projects in the state.
Cost to taxpayers: Increased taxes on motor fuel.