Kehoe puts four measures, including income tax elimination, on August ballot

By: Matthew Sanders

JEFFERSON, Mo. (KMIZ) -- Missouri voters will see four statewide issues on their August primary ballots.

Gov. Mike Kehoe on Friday chose to put those measures on the August ballot instead of the November general election ballot, according to a release from Kehoe's office.

The highest-profile measure would phase out income tax and create the legal power to place taxes on more goods and services. It would also require local governments to reduce property taxes to offset tax increases.

Local governments have already started putting sales tax increases on ballots, in part in anticipation of the measure becoming law, if approved. Columbia and Boone County each plan to seek public safety sales taxes in August.

Other statewide measures on the August ballot:

• A continuation of the statewide tenth-of-a-percent soil and water conservation sales tax;
• A requirement that all charter counties elect a county assessor
• A constitutional amendment that would make it harder for a measure to make the ballot by citizen petition

Other ballot measures would appear on the November ballot. One of them is Amendment 3, which seeks to overturn abortion protections that voters approved in 2024.

A ballot measure that has not yet been certified, but could still appear on the November ballot, is one that puts the state's new "Missouri First" congressional map to a vote. The Missouri General Assembly approved the map last year amid a White House push to get more Republican seats in the House. Democratic states followed suit.

The map breaks up the current Democratically safe Fifth District, represented by Emanuel Cleaver, in Kansas City.