- See also: School bond and tax elections in Missouri
Missouri mandates four types of school bond and tax elections. First is to issue new bonding for capital improvements and new construction and also if a school district wants to exceed its debt limit known as a debt ceiling. Also, elections are required if a school district wants to exceed a basic operating levy. The basic operating levy and the debt ceiling levy differ as the debt ceiling is a limit on all outstanding levies in a school district. Lastly, if a school district wants to revise a existing levy to increase or decrease it, a Proposition C referendum is mandated. Proposition C is protected by the Missouri Constitution. There are tough super majority requirements as a bond issue requires a four-sevenths vote (57.15%) while any referendum involving exceeding the levy cap, debt ceiling levy, or a Proposition C levy referendum requires a two-thirds super majority vote (66.7%) for approval. Missouri is one of a few states that requires super-majority approval from the voters to approve a ballot measure related to school finance.
Casino repeal
Jefferson City voters will consider on April 8, 2008, a veto referendum to overturn the city's 13-year ban on casinos and riverboat gambling—the third time city voters have considered the issue since 1992. The measure is led by City Councilman Kevin Brown, who convinced the council to put two closely related gambling proposals on the ballot.
"Jefferson City is tied pretty tight to the overall economy of state government," Brown said. "For us to prosper, we've got to diversify those economic ties.... I don't think gaming is the savior. Quite contrary to that. But it is an element that could drive tourism and make Jefferson City more of a destination."
Casino gambling in the state is limited to areas along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
The opposition to the measure is formidable: a coalition of church leaders and some of the city's conservative leaders, including Clyde Lear, chairman and chief executive of Learfield Communications.
Lear heads Citizens Supporting Integrity, the leading opposition group, which has raised nearly $24,000 from two dozen donors, including $5,000 from Lear, $1,000 from the Missouri Baptist Convention, and $5,000 from Herschend Family Entertainment, developers of Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, who helped defeat a 2004 statewide vote to amend the Missouri Constitution to allow a casino in the tiny town of Rockaway Beach. Lear said he expects the gambling measure to be soundly defeated.
Support for the measure comes from Citizens For Growth Without Taxation, which seems to be limited to one person, Ed Storey, a retired businessman and developer. The group has only received doantions—$1,954 and another $3,800 of in-kind contributions—from Storey himself.
Storey rejects arguments that a riverboat casino would blight the capital city's historical identity, noting that the historic cities of St. Joseph, St. Charles, and St. Louis each have casinos. Storey said that extra jobs and added revenue are sorely needed in Jefferson City.
Even if Jefferson City voters agree to remove the gambling prohibition, legislators could render moot the chances of a new casino. The state House voted last week to ban new casino licenses for two years. The state Senate is considering separate legislation that would ban any more casinos than those already operating or under construction. And an initiative petition being circulated by the gambling industry—the Gambling Loss Limits Initiative—, which would limit new casinos to those already built or being built.
Jefferson City voters approved casino gambling in 1992, the same year voters approved a similar statewide referendum. But three years later, capital city voters reversed course after a Las Vegas developer who reached a deal with the city a casino was linked to organized crime.[1]
Local smoking issues
Workplaces must be smoke-free beginning June 2008
Kansas City voters approved a ballot initiative April 8, 2008, requiring that workplaces, including restaurants and bars, be smoke-free beginning in two months. The measure was approved by 52% of voters.[2]
Reynolds American, a division of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., contributed $220,000 to the "No on 3" campaign, which opposed the proposal to ban smoking from Kansas City bars and restaurants. That funding amounted to 98% of the funds for the group of Kansas City bar owners who opposed the ban. "The real issue is allowing adults to smoke in adult-only venues," Steve Kottak, a Reynold American spokesman, said.[3]
Supporters of the ban held a news conference April 1, 2008, to blast the influx of big tobacco dollars, with City Councilwoman Cathy Jolly, a co-chair of the Breathe Easy campaign supporting Question 3, claiming, "There is no local opposition."[3]
But Cathy Nugent, executive director of the Kansas City Business Rights Coalition, argued that the opposition did include local tavern and bar owners. "We are small business. We can’t afford to fight this alone," she said.[3]
Kim Moffatt, owner of Twin City Tavern, just east of State Line, said about half her patrons smoke and that a ban could prompt them to stay home or move to smoking-friendly bars just a few blocks away in Kansas. "You take away half our business, we won’t survive," she said.[4]
But Pam Whiting of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce said the Chamber supported the smoking ban, because it could mean lower health-care costs. "Among small and large businesses, their overriding concern was health-care costs and the impact of smoking on health-care costs," Whiting said.[4]
Smoking ban on ballot
Two smoking ban proposals will be on the ballot in April 2008 elections. The citizen initiative will ban smoking in all areas but casino floors while the city council's petition will ban smoking from restaurants and the concourses of Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums. The council's petition would allow smoking in stand-alone bars and on casino floors.
The third measure likely to be on the April ballot would renew a 3/8-cent sales tax for the bus system, where the funds raised from the tax will go directly back into the bus system.[5]
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