A presentation regarding proposed state ballot measures was given June 22 by the Shield Maidens of Missouri, introduced by sponsor 154th District State Rep. Lisa Durnell, who promised an honest presentation in plain language.
The Shield Maidens of Missouri are Stacy Shore, a real estate agent of 31 years from Camdenton with degrees in political science and public administration, and Lisa Panett, who described herself as a homeschool mom and “Jesus freak.”
Durnell added that Pannett is a friend who assists her with legislation, and has been a legislative observer at the capitol for the past 13 years. In the interest of full disclosure, Pannett also noted she is a paid worker in Durnell’s office who took the opportunity to represent voters when it was offered.
The two presented slides explaining the proposed legislation and why they are opposed to it.
Shore then told audience members that if Amendment 5 passes, it would repeal a 2016 voter-approved constitutional ban on new service taxes. It would also expand taxes on goods, she explained, and suspend Missouri’s Hancock Amendment, which limits state tax increases to 1% over the previous year without a vote of the people.
Shore added that the only specific exemption for increased taxes on goods was marijuana. She further noted that, according to State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, state surplus funds have been exhausted, forcing the state to reduce its budget, cut services or increase taxes.
In a video clip played by Pannett, Fitzpatrick mentioned that eliminating the state personal income tax is possible, but doing so would require business tax exemptions to be eliminated for “almost everyone” to keep sales tax rates reasonable.
Shore highlighted what she described as the intentional lack of transparency during legislative sessions, pointing out that a request for session and vote livestreams by Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, was rejected.
Pannett also noted that when Fitzgerald commented in the video clip that Missouri has one of the lower sales tax rates in the U.S., he was only talking about the state portion of the tax. She reminded the audience that local counties and municipalities also levy sales taxes. She cited the city of St. Louis, which carries a combined sales tax rate of nearly 13%, among the highest in the nation.
“They’re selling you a bill of goods to get what they want,” Pannett commented.
Those local sales taxes are used to fund public services like schools, law enforcement, first responders and road maintenance. They are collected by the state from businesses, then paid out to county and municipal governments.
Shore argued that it is no coincidence that Amendment 5 appears on the ballot at a time when the state faces a projected $2 billion deficit and a constitutional limit on income tax increases.
“The issue becomes why are we not just talking about cutting the budget? Because the lobbyists buy the elections, they buy our state right now,” Shore said.
Shore and Pannett also addressed the potential impact on voter-led ballot initiatives if Amendment 4 passes. Currently citizen-led initiatives require a threshold of signatures to be placed on a ballot, then pass by a simple statewide majority.
If Amendment 4 passes, the bar would be raised to require a majority in all eight of Missouri’s congressional districts, meaning a failure in just one district would defeat the measure statewide.
The presentation then turned to political action committees (PACs) like Missouri Promise PAC and Missouri Action, which are deploying millions of dollars in advertising supporting Amendment 5. The speakers questioned whether those funds originate out of state, or even out of the U.S., noting such entities are allowed to operate without disclosing underlying donor identities or physical addresses.
“When you start to understand the donations that are funding this push for Amendment 5, they’re not from ordinary Missourians like you and me,” Shore said. They are big-money donations being laundered from P.O. box to P.O. box. We have no idea who these organizations are. There’s a lot of speculation they are big data centers, a lot of speculation about a lot of different billionaires that have an interest, but it’s not about you getting rid of your income tax. This is about them.”
Shore speculated that lobbyists representing corporations that stand to gain from passage of the two amendments are driving the effort.
“I am a ‘no’ on four,” Shore said. “My belief is they thought they were going to get Five across the line and they were going to lock it in with Four because it’s going to be virtually impossible to change your constitution to address this if they got Four across the line also.”
