Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
The following is a legislative update from Clarkston Nelson, LLC concerning the Missouri General Assembly’s 2026 legislative session. Use the information within to develop local coverage of issues important to your readers.
On Tuesday the Missouri House voted 95-59 to send House Joint Resolution 173 to the ballot. Likely to be placed on the November ballot by Governor Kehoe, Missouri voters will be asked to approve the measure to allow the Missouri General Assembly to begin phasing out the state income tax and replacing the revenues with new taxes on goods and services. If passed, future General Assembly’s will be faced with passing legislation to offset the revenues lost as the state income tax phases out over five years. This ballot issue should dominate the news and campaign ads in the months leading up to the election as both sides of this proposal are likely to be well funded to run campaigns on the measure.
Per HJR 173, the ballot question will read as follows:
“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
On Wednesday the Missouri Senate passed their version of the fiscal year 2027 state operating budget. The 12 appropriations bills total $48.8 billion for all funds, to which $15.5 billion of those funds is from state general revenue collected from state income tax, state sales tax, fees, and other sources. The Senate version is $1.7 billion less than the House passed version, and $3.3 billion less than the Governor’s recommended budget. These bills will now be sent to a Conference Committee of House and Senate budget negotiators, to which they will find a negotiated position on all bills and must pass the final budget by 6 pm on Friday, May 8th.
Three weeks remain in the 2026 legislative session as the legislature is set to adjourn on May 15th per the state constitution.
Election Notices Bill Moving in Senate
On Monday afternoon, the Senate Local Government, Elections, and Pensions Committee voted “do pass” on Senate Committee Substitute for House Committee Substitute for House Bill 1871, sponsored by Rep. Peggy McGaugh (R-Carrollton), an elections bill. The committee vote was 6-0. The bill seeks to reorganize and update Missouri’s election statutes by repealing and rewriting multiple sections that govern various aspects of election administration, procedures, and rules. The bill allows a county clerk to mail election notices to all registered voters in their county and, if notices are mailed, a newspaper in that county would publish the election notice once instead of two times. Also, election notices would be published within six weeks of an election, rather than within one week before the election. A provision was added in the Senate Committee Substitute allowing a county clerk, upon notice publicly posted at the office of the election authority not later than six weeks before the election, to provide that specified electioneering activities on election day or during the absentee voting period inside the building may not take place within 50 feet, rather than 25 feet, of the building's outer door closest to the polling place. Also, a candidate who is not seeking to vote shall be allowed to be up to 25 feet from the building's outer door closest to the polling place and may distribute election literature. And campaign signs shall be permitted to be placed up to 25 feet from the building's outer door closest to the polling place. In other portions of the bill, it allows for election notification to be delivered to election authorities by email; allows bond elections to be considered final if no election contest has been brought before the time period expired after the election; advances the filing dates for offices in political subdivisions and special districts by one week; addresses paid tax reporting requirements for candidates in St Louis City; sets which days public elections must be held; re-enacts voter registration eligibility and registration processes; includes absentee ballot procedures; makes changes to voter identification; maintains the in-person no-excuse absentee voting period to two weeks before an election; and all lists of absentee ballot applications for people with permanent disabilities will be kept confidential and must not be posted or displayed in an area open to the general public nor shown to any unauthorized person.
School Athletic Association Governing Boards
The House Committee on Corrections and Public Institutions convened Monday afternoon to receive public testimony on SB 863, sponsored by Senator Jason Bean (R-Holcomb). The bill creates an Interscholastic Athletic Oversight Commission. Appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, the commission would hear appeals related to student athletic eligibility and contest procedures, with authority to issue final, binding decisions that activities associations must follow. This legislation also requires annual reporting to the legislature and clarifies that the measure applies primarily to organizations overseeing interscholastic athletics, excluding non-athletic student groups, thereby narrowing the bill’s scope while increasing accountability and state-level review of key decisions. Supporting testimony was presented by the School Administrators Council. No opposing testimony was presented. Immediately after the hearing, the committee went into executive session to consider passage of SB 863. With no further discussion, the committee passed the bill by a 12-0 vote.
Legislative Research Committee Duties
The House Budget Committee convened on Thursday morning to consider passage of Senate Bill 1470, sponsored by Senator Mike Bernskoetter (R-Jefferson City). This bill updates and modernizes how Missouri’s Joint Committee on Legislative Research operates, primarily by shifting the publication and distribution of state laws and statutes from a paper-based system to a more flexible, digital-first approach, allowing materials to be provided electronically and funded through an expanded Statutory Revision Fund rather than general revenue. The bill also streamlines how statutes are printed, sold, and updated, clarifies the committee’s role in producing supplements instead of full reprints, and adjusts internal operations such as meeting timelines, leadership structure, and staff duties to reflect current practices. A substituted version was voted do pass with a vote of 25-1. The substitute goes beyond simple modernization and adds structural reforms—shrinking the committee, strengthening fiscal oversight, and updating how legislative research functions in practice.
Constitutional Amendment to Eliminate Income Tax - TAFP
On Tuesday morning, the full House brought up for final passage Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for House Committee Substitute for House Joint Resolution 173 & 174, handled by Rep. Bishop Davidson (R-Republic), a state constitutional amendment to change taxation in Missouri. After more than two hours of debate, the resolution was truly agreed to and finally passed by a House vote of 95-59. This constitutional amendment, if approved by voters statewide, modifies provisions relating to taxation. Current law imposes a state income tax rate of 4.7 percent. This amendment provides that the General Assembly shall enact legislation to reduce and eliminate the individual income tax based on revenue growth. Upon the elimination of the income tax, the General Assembly shall be prohibited from enacting an income tax. The amendment authorizes the General Assembly to expand the sales and use tax base to include the ability to tax any goods and services. Beginning 12 months from the effective date of any such legislation, any political subdivision imposing a sales or use tax shall adjust one or more of several tax levies imposed by such political subdivision for the purpose of offsetting 97 percent of any additional revenue received from the expansion of the sales and use tax base. The levies that shall be adjusted are the sales and use tax rate, personal property tax levy, residential real property tax levy, the property tax operating levy, or earnings tax rate. Notwithstanding such provision, no adjustment made pursuant to this provision shall result in a reduction in funding to the public schools within or serving such political subdivision. Beginning 12 months from the effective date of any legislation expanding the sales tax base or increasing the sales tax rate, each constitutionally imposed sales and use tax rate shall be adjusted in a manner provided by law to produce substantially the same amount of tax produced by any sales and use tax base expansion. The State Auditor shall determine any such adjustments.
Motion Media Production Tax Credits
On Monday afternoon, the full House brought up for third reading House Committee Substitute for House Bill 2142 & 2058, sponsored by Rep. Colin Wellenkamp (R-St. Charles), legislation to help fund motion media production projects in Missouri. The bill was third read and passed by a House vote of 93-54, and the bill now moves to the Senate. The bill changes the amount of tax credits authorized for film or series production from $8 million per year for film production and $8 million per year for series production to $16 million per year total to be used for either film production or series production. The program has an automatic sunset of Dec. 31, 2029, which was not changed.
Residential Property Taxation
On Thursday morning, the full House brought up for passage House Committee Substitute for Senate Bills 1066 & 1088, as amended, sponsored by Sen. Ben Brown (R-Washington), relating to certain residential property taxation. The bill was third read and passed by a vote of 83-61, and the bill now returns to the Senate. The bill modifies the definition of "residential property" for the taxation of real property to include single family homes that are owned by a sole proprietor, individual, partnership, or limited liability company and leased, in whole or in part, for a term of less than 30 consecutive days, provided that such provision may not apply to any such property in excess of 15 such properties owned by the same individual or business. The bill also prohibits an assessor from reclassifying real property without first conducting an in-person consultation with the owner of record of such property. Three House floor amendments were added to the bill: one amendment for technical issues; another saying levies are not targeted, property tax levies are to be uniformly applied to all properties, and when voters approve a tax increase, it must be applied in the same reassessment cycle. Another amendment provides new training requirements for assessors, allows taxpayers to receive electronic notifications regarding taxation, and when tax payments are under protest, the taxpayer must pay only the previous year’s amount of taxes. The bill does not require counties to provide property tax freezes to seniors, but allows such decisions to be made by individual counties. Current law provides that the burden of proof to sustain a property valuation shall be on the assessor for any assessment of residential real property that is made by a computer, computer-assisted method, or a computer program. The bill applies such a provision to all non-agricultural real property. Current law requires an assessor to conduct a physical inspection of any residential real property prior to increasing the assessed valuation of such property by more than 15 percent. The bill applies such requirements to all utility, industrial, commercial, railroad, and other non-agricultural real property. Current law allows for a taxing jurisdiction to impose a separate levy for each class and subclass of property or a single rate for all classes and requires a reconciliation of the revenues derived from multiple rates. Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, the bill requires counties and the City of St. Louis to determine assessed valuation and impose rates for each class and subclass of property separately and repeals the reconciliation provision. The bill provides that any payment of real or personal property taxes transmitted through the U.S. Postal Service and postmarked no later than January 5 shall be deemed to be timely paid. Current law requires school districts to impose a property tax levy for operating purposes of not less than $2.75 in order to receive the full amount of state aid, with such rates subject to Hancock rollbacks. The bill provides that the maximum rate of levy for any school district that imposed a levy of $2.75 in 2026 shall be $2.75 for the 2026-2027 school year and shall be subject to Hancock rollbacks thereafter. The bill provides that a political subdivision or election authority shall not advertise or describe any proposed property tax as not increasing taxes unless failing to adopt the measure would cause an actual increase in the tax rate and adopting the measure would cause the tax rate to stay the same or decrease. The bill requires an election authority to label tax ballot measures numerically or alphabetically in the order they are submitted.
Senate-Local Government, Elections, and Pensions
4/27/26 2:00 PM
Committee Hearing, Senate Lounge
HB2387 Banderman - Modifies provisions relating to the Presidential Preference Primary
House-Rules-Legislative
4/27/26 4:30 PM or upon adjournment (whichever is later)
Committee Hearing, HR 4
Executive Session:
SB863 Bean - Establishes the "Interscholastic Athletic Oversight Commission", a board of directors appointed by the Governor to hear appeals of certain decisions made by statewide activities associations
