Primary election recap

Valley News Staff with additional reporting from Missouri Independent and Associated Press, Beacon: Missouri

Voters headed to the polls Tuesday for the primary election and to decide on two state amendments, rejecting an attempt by lawmakers to exempt childcare facilities from paying property taxes, and approving an amendment to require Kansas City to spend more of its municipal budget on policing, reinstating a policy that had been overturned by the state supreme court. 

(See additional reporting from Missouri Independent below).

Locally, District 32 Missouri State Representative Jeff Coleman ran unopposed and will face Democrat Jennifer Cassidy in November.

Missouri voters approve amendment requiring more police spending in Kansas City

by Allison Kite, Missouri Independent
August 6, 2024

Missourians on Tuesday voted to require Kansas City to spend more of its municipal budget on policing, reinstating a policy that had been overturned by the state supreme court. 

The race was called by the Associated Press at 11:30 p.m., with the amendment winning 51% to 48%. That means the Missouri Constitution will be amended to require Kansas City to spend at least 25% of its general revenue on police, amounting to tens of millions of dollars per year.

While it provides funding for the department, Kansas City is the only major city in the U.S. that doesn’t have local control of its police. The Kansas City Police Department is governed by the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, which includes the mayor and four members appointed by the Missouri governor. That means while the City Council writes the checks for the Kansas City police, they have no control over how funds are spent.

Between the 1950s and 2022, Kansas City was required to spend at least 20% of its general revenue on police and often exceeded that. But in 2020, as racial justice protesters pushed for police reform across the nation, Kansas City sought to exert more influence over the police budget.

Following the protests, sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Kansas City officials attempted to set aside $42 million in police funding — above its obligatory 20% spending — for “community engagement, outreach, prevention, intervention and other public services” in an attempt to increase police accountability.

But the move was lambasted by Missouri Republicans, who claimed City Hall was trying to “defund” the police.

Missouri lawmakers responded with legislation requiring Kansas City to spend at least 25% of its revenue on police, which passed in the spring of 2022 on a largely party-line vote with Republicans supporting increased police spending. 

Voters then, in the fall of 2022, approved the legislation with 63% of the vote. The policy was unpopular, however, in the Jackson County portion of Kansas City where 61% of voters rejected it. It passed in Platte and Clay counties, which include suburban parts of Kansas City.

After the vote, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas challenged the election in court, saying a summary printed on voters’ ballots “materially misstated” the cost of the proposal.

The fiscal note summary accompanying the 2022 amendment said the requirement that Kansas City spend at least 25% of its revenue on police would result in “no additional costs or savings.” The state argued that because the city had voluntarily granted that much in the past, the amendment simply removed the city’s discretion rather than imposing a new cost.

City Hall, however, argued the mandate could potentially cost other departments up to $38.7 million in budget cuts.

The Missouri Supreme Court agreed with the city and ordered the results of that election be tossed and a new vote be held, paving the way for Tuesday’s vote. 

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X.

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Missouri voters reject property tax break for child care facilities

by Allison Kite, Missouri Independent
August 6, 2024

Missouri voters on Tuesday rejected an attempt by lawmakers to exempt child care facilities from paying property taxes, an incentive supporters hoped would help with the state’s day care shortage.

When the Associated Press called the race at 10:30 p.m., more than 54% of Missourians had voted against amending the Missouri Constitution to offer the property tax exemption. It’s one of several attempts by lawmakers in recent years to take action on the state’s shortage of child care facilities.

“This is just one incentive to try to make that easier for the facilities,” state Sen. Travis Fitzwater said during a committee hearing on the bill last year.

According to the language on voters’ ballots, the exemption was “intended to make child care more available, which would support the well-being of children, families, the workforce and society as a whole.” 

An investigation by The Independent and Muckrock found nearly one in five Missouri children lives in a “child care desert,” where there are more than three children under the age of six for every licensed child care slot. Some areas have more than 20 children per licensed seat or no daycare access at all. 

Even in areas with plenty of licensed child care seats, staffing shortages mean facilities can’t operate at full capacity. It can be difficult to hire for child care jobs, which paid, on average, less than $12 an hour in 2021. 

And while COVID relief funding poured into Missouri to help with the shortage, it largely went to ZIP codes that weren’t child care deserts, The Independent and MuckRock found. 

It’s unclear how much money child care providers might have saved statewide if the property tax exemption had passed. Voters’ ballots said local governments were unsure what the fiscal impact might be to their budgets.

But the hope for supporters was that saving child care providers money might help with the shortage.  

“It’s going to take an all-of-the-above approach to tackling the child care crisis,” Heidi Geisbuhler Sutherland, a lobbyist for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in a hearing last year. 

When the legislation came before Missouri lawmakers, it had support from an array of child care and economic development organizations, including the chamber. Geisbuhler Sutherland said business owners have told the chamber that the lack of child care makes it difficult for companies to find workers.

Missouri lawmakers have considered an array of options to deal with the child care shortage. This spring, Gov. Mike Parson pushed a package of child care tax credits, but the legislation stalled in the Senate because of ultra-conservative opposition to “welfare” or the attempt to “give away free child care.”

Parson called for the tax credits in his State of the State speech in January, noting Missouri had enough licensed facilities to serve just 39% of children, and proposed a budget that increased child care subsidies by $51.7 million.

He said: “It’s time for change.”

Nina Hampton of Columbia voted at American Legion Post 202 and opposed the child care property tax amendment. 

“Corporations are paying off the politicians,” she said. “The poor guy keeps paying and paying but the corporations get everything.”

The Independent’s Rudi Keller contributed to this story. 

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: [email protected]. Follow Missouri Independent on Facebook and X.

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Missouri primary election 2024 results

by The Associated Press, Beacon: Missouri
August 2, 2024

Find live election results from the Aug. 6 Missouri primary election. Looking for Kansas results? Head over to this page.

Election results for U.S. Senate

Election results for Missouri governor, lieutenant governor

Election results for attorney general

Election results for secretary of state

Election results for state treasurer

Election results for U.S. House

Results for Missouri Amendment 1 and Missouri Amendment 4 

Missouri primary election results for state House of Representatives

Simply search the district number you are looking for and pick a county below to find results.

Missouri primary election results for state Senate races

Simply search the district number you are looking for and pick a county below to find results.

This article first appeared on Beacon: Missouri and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.