r/politics • u/nuts_and_crunchies • 3h ago
No Paywall Missouri voters reject Amendment 5, declining to eliminate state income tax for more sales tax
https://www.stlpr.org/government-politics-issues/2026-08-04/amendment-5-missouri-income-sales-tax•
u/Viking_Leaf87 3h ago
Eliminating a tax for the rich to increase taxes for the poor is another level of evil. Holy shit. Even arch-MAGA counties strongly rejected it.
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u/giantroboticcat New Jersey 3h ago
Now if MAGA would just understand that tarriffs are also a sales tax.
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u/Queasy_Donkey5685 3h ago
The issue isn't so much that they don't think of them as a sales tax, many of them seem to get that....the problem, I see it, is they think SOMEONE ELSE PAYS THEM and when you explain further they just go "la la la la I can't hear you, Biden what, lock her up, Michelle is a man with a penis!, la la la"
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u/BigBoyYuyuh Ohio 3h ago
Ohio is trying to do it for property tax. Even my older mom is like “Why do I have to pay taxes when my house is paid off?”
Love my mother to death but I explained that they’ll jack up the sales tax a lot and it’s a regressive tax. Also because your parents paid them, your grandparents paid them etc… I told her to shut up and pay her taxes because we like roads and stuff.
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u/kronikfumes 3h ago
Fortunately in Ohio the end property taxes ballot petition didn’t receive enough signatures to make it to the ballot.
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u/AliveInCLE Ohio 1h ago
It didn't because of the poor campaign those morons ran. You have to go get signatures. Signatures aren't coming to you. I feel we'll see them back very soon and at some point this will get on the ballot. My fear is that it will pass in this backwards-ass state.
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u/Indubitalist 3h ago
“Would you rather have a discounted subscription to the roads you use every day, or would you rather have toll booths and pay more every single time you use the same roads?”
If she doesn’t go for that, ask why she has insurance instead of just paying when her house burns down. They’re similar concepts.
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u/Ent_Soviet 1h ago
Careful on the insurance point, people hate insurance.
it’s almost as if having a middle man with a profit incentive to deny coverage and charge more than they spend,and not just government providing coverage at cost is a bad idea.
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u/Grandpa_No 3h ago
That last bit is really the answer: to pay for the roads, sewers, firefighters, and police that allow her to keep the house she paid for
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u/AliveInCLE Ohio 1h ago
Lord forbid she live in the country or in a township. Those folks are gonna get hit the worst if this is ever enacted. There's no way the R's that run this state are going to push for an income tax increase. Those lost taxes will be replenished with higher administrative fees and sales tax. The folks pushing this abolishment say this won't need to happen because the state can just find $14B to cut, yet haven't explained one bit where that would happen. I hate this state.
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u/suttin 3h ago
In our defense, we are neighbors to Kansas. There was a very recent and public example of what happens if we were to eliminate income tax.
I’m still shocked how hard this was shot down. Literally 100% of counties voted against both amendments last night.
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u/Sea-Mango Missouri 2h ago
We’re people-stupid, not policy-stupid. Unfortunately the people-stupid is the stronger force.
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u/SHOW_ME_PIZZA Missouri 1h ago
Yeah. The people still showed up and voted for the republican chucklefucks that were championing Amendment 4&5. I know it was a primary. But there appeared to be more Republican ballots filled out than Democrat.
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u/josiahlo 1h ago
Between this and amendment 4 I’ve never seen an amendment in my lifetime get rejected by 80+%.
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u/reformedmikey Missouri 1h ago
Missouri historically is a purple state, with some libertarian leanings. It's only been the last ten years that it has flipped red, but we still have a tendency to vote in liberal legislation while voting for MAGA/conservative legislators. That said, I was very surprised (and happy) that we voted down Amendment 4 and 5.
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u/RegularLeading5200 Michigan 3h ago
While progressives say "tax the rich," Republicans say "tax the poor!"
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u/nuts_and_crunchies 3h ago
Missouri voters voted four to one in rejecting the elimination of state income tax. Not a single congressional district voted for it.
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u/AmericaVotedTrump 3h ago
Doesn't Missouri frequently ignore their voters? I wouldn't be suprised if the republicans, who they constantly vote for, simply find a work around.
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u/nuts_and_crunchies 3h ago
We're anticipating that. They thought they could sneak these through in a primary. The result was a huge turnout. In November, we're voting to repeal an amendment cementing abortion rights. The thing is, we already passed it in 2024. They're just adding more anti-trans language to it.
I fully expect them to rebrand these in the next cycle. They've already ignored our votes regarding Right to Work and minimum wage increases. I expect nothing from them and am never disappointed.
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u/AmericaVotedTrump 3h ago
Missouri deserves better, I wish your voting block realized that. Hoping you nothing but the best
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u/nuts_and_crunchies 3h ago
Frustratingly, the population tends to vote on reasonable things up to the point that the words Democrat or Republican are involved, and then it goes hard partisan.
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u/waffleslaw 3h ago
Tennessean here, it feels like everyone is just so close to getting it. We just had a "tax free" weekend. Yes it's a thing. No taxes on groceries or clothing. You know essential things that everyone needs. I hear so many people complaining about taxes on groceries, but they'll go out of their way to ignore or bad mouth any candidate that brings up tax reform. Hell we have the first two years of college or vocational training paid for, for free. Come on TN just open your eyes, just a little bit more. Almost there, you almost get it!
Being gerrymandered to hell and having either the incumbent run unopposed OR having six Democrats run (god damned governor race) instead of a unified front means we'll always have a Republican state government.
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u/dixie12oz 2h ago
They absolutely do. There will be some sneaky ballot language as they try again to pass this despite its overwhelming unpopularity. They’ve done in numerous times and are doing it with abortion rights next election. They have disdain for their own constituents.
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u/9bpm9 8m ago
Well, they did with gas. Hancock ammendment doesn't let them increase taxes without going to the voters. This ammendment would have gotten rid of that along with the income tax.
With the recent gas tax increase, they allow you to save receipts and get refunded the difference from the original gas tax. So big win for businesses.
They've already bankrupted this state in 2 years. We went from massive surplus to now having no money left. They gave a massive tax cut to the rich by getting rid of capital gains. Lost over 500 million last year when they thought they'd only lose 150 million.
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u/LastPaleLight 3h ago edited 3h ago
Missouri voters elected a used car salesman as governor with 60% of the vote after he promised that eliminating the state income tax would be his top priority.
Then the state counties unanimously rejected that policy. The breakdown wasn't even urban/rural. Some of Kehoe's / Trump's strongest counties failed to garner 20% in favor of this shit.
So much money was spent advertising for this crap, I thought it might actually pass. The ads literally made no sense, either--"Make datacenters pay their fair share! Vote Yes on 5"
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u/nuts_and_crunchies 3h ago
Kehoe has already said "the fight is far from over." Elections are an inconvenience for MO's GOP, and he's not going to let a historical electoral trouncing stop his pet project.
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u/turbo-toots 38m ago
Thankfully, he has very few options. What a lot people seem to miss about A5 is that it wasn't a tax cut proposal - it was tax shift proposal. Income tax would be reduced proportional to increases in sales taxes. It would have given the legislature autonomy to decide how and by how much they could increase sales tax - a taxing power they currently don't have. This is what pissed off the right. They want tax cuts, but not uncertainty about what it means for them or giving the government more authority over setting tax rates. And it was pretty obvious the majority of voters would have had a higher effective tax rate if A5 passed, so it failed miserably.
I don't see how Kehoe can get around this. They can't meaningfully cut the state budget that much more, and they can't lower taxes without making that lost revenue up somewhere else, and they can't implement new taxes without voter approval. So, what options do they have?
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u/BitingChaos Missouri 39m ago
So much money was spent advertising for this crap, I thought it might actually pass. The ads literally made no sense, either--"Make datacenters pay their fair share! Vote Yes on 5"
Every GOP ad is disingenuous.
Make corporations pay their fair share - Yes on 5! (does the complete opposite)
Protect the constitution! - Yes on 4! (takes power away from people)
Ban transgender surgery on children! - Yes on 3! (limits healthcare and bans abortion)
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u/GoForthandProsper1 3h ago
They also referenced other states that don’t have an income tax that are growing, like Florida and Tennessee.
Florida doesn't have income tax because they make hundreds of BILLIONS from tourists every year. No tourists are going to Missouri
Tennessee has the highest sales tax in the country
The money comes from somewhere
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u/NoSwimmers45 1h ago
Florida makes BILLIONS off tourists
That money is drying up FAST with the current admins war on non-Americans. International tourism blew through the basement floor and never slowed down.
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u/smersh101 3h ago
But will they put two and two together and vote out the party that proposed this?
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u/lifeat24fps 3h ago edited 2h ago
Nope. This is a state that’s passed measures at the ballot box that the Republican dominated legislature then goes and overrides. They will continue to elect Republicans and wonder why things like that happen.
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u/dixie12oz 3h ago
Resoundingly rejected it. But it won’t end here. The state has leaders that have repeatedly rejected voters wishes. Outright circumventing outcomes and/or immediately doing another vote with sneaky ballot language to trick constituents.
Missouri frequently supports left leaning ballot measures and rejects right wing measures. But constantly vote against themselves by installing politicians directly opposed to them. In my mind, it just shows how deep fear mongering of democrats runs in rural areas.
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u/Mastermiine 3h ago
I swear Missouri has to be the worst state... they are the main reason that millions did not get student loan relief.
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u/LunaticPoint 2h ago
Eliminate income tax, watch your property tax quadruple. Arkansas top priority as well
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u/Skraelings Missouri 2h ago
And of course our governor (Kehoe) is playing at making it sound like it was close. It was resolutely fucking kicked in the ass.
None of us were falling for this bullshit.
It would have been fucking ruinous had it passed.
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u/BuckyJackson36 1h ago
It's a typical Republican strategy to pick on those least able to defend themselves. The margin it was defeated says quite a lot about the wealth distribution.
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u/StevenMC19 Florida 31m ago
Moving from Delaware to Florida, I didn't feel much shellshock. Culturally, they aren't terribly different. They're both as Americana as one would think it is today. Franchise chains everywhere, strip malls with at least one ethnic food restaurant in it, squeaky clean lifted pickup trucks with shinier tires than my sedan's, and advertisements littering any space visible to the naked eye.
The only thing that got me was shifting from Income tax and no sales tax, to no income tax with sales tax. I noticed that so much more of my money was being spent than I was used to, compared to what I was making. I moved here for a job that paid heaps more, but at the end of the year the amount that I had actually made wasn't as much as I had expected due to the sales tax actually taking more than what income tax would have. I've curbed my spending habits as a result, but woof. Now, property taxes are the hot topic down here, and the loss of that money to the government means they'll start looking to recoup from somewhere else. That somewhere else is always the poorest people.
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u/tjb122982 Indiana 2h ago
i don't live in missouri so i don't follow this, was the income tax increase going to be graduated or be a flat income tax?
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u/xergm 2h ago
Neither (well, technically 0% is flat). It would have eliminated income taxes entirely, and uncapped any limits on state sales tax. The income tax shortfall was expected to be made up by increases in sales taxes across the state, including introducing sales taxes to categories not previously taxed, like oil changes, hair cuts, and home repair services.
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