Outside of voting for senators and state representatives, Missouri residents will be voting on several propositions and constitutional amendments during the midterm elections on Nov. 6. Here’s a preview of a few of those propositions and amendments:
##Clean Missouri Initiative##
The first proposed constitutional amendment, known as the Clean Missouri Initiative, calls for a changed process for redrawing state legislative districts. The current process has two commissions responsible for redistricting. There is a commission for state and House districts. The state district consists of five Democrats and five Republicans, and the House district consists of eight Democrats and eight Republicans.
This change would create a non-partisan state demographer who will “acquire appropriate information to develop procedures in preparation for drawing legislative redistricting maps on the basis of each federal census for presentation to the house apportionment commission and the senatorial apportionment commission,” according to the bill.
The amendment also proposes to change limits on campaign contributions and establish a limit on gifts that state legislators can accept from paid lobbyists. The current campaign contribution limit for Missouri Senate and House member elections is $2,600. If passed, the amendment would lower these limits to $2,500 for Senate members, $2,000 for House members and make gifts costing over $5 illegal.
The final provision of the amendment calls for legislative records and proceedings to be made open to the public.
##Medical Marijuana Bills##
There are three proposals related to the legalization of medical marijuana.
Proposition C, Constitutional Amendment No. 3 and Constitutional Amendment No. 2 all propose the allowance of the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
The key difference between these three proposals is the differing tax rates and the use of those funds, according to the proposal’s respective ballot summaries.
Prop. C proposes a 2 percent tax on the retail sale of medical marijuana and the use of the funds from this tax for veterans’ services, drug treatment, early childhood education and public safety in cities with a medical marijuana facility.
Constitutional Amendment No. 3 proposes a 15 percent tax on the retail sale of medical marijuana and for that money to fund a state research institute that will conduct research with the purpose of developing cures and treatments for incurable diseases or medical conditions.
Constitutional Amendment No. 2 proposes a 4 percent tax on the retail of medical marijuana and the use of funds from these taxes for military veterans and to administer the program to license, certify and regulate marijuana and its facilities.
##Minimum Wage Proposal##
Proposition B proposes increasing the state minimum wage to $12 by 2023. The current minimum wage is $7.85, Prop. B would increase it to $8.60 and then an increase of 85 cents per year until 2023.
##Fuel Tax##
Proposition D calls for funding state law enforcement (such as highway patrol) by increasing the motor fuel tax by two and a half cents per gallon annually for four years beginning July 1, 2019, according to the ballot summary. It will also establish the Emergency State Freight Bottleneck Fund.
A bottleneck is defined as a place in the road where traffic cannot pass easily, like improperly paved roads and potholes, according to Longman Dictionary.
If passed, this will generate at least $288 million annually to the State Road Fund going toward state law enforcement and $123 million annually to local governments for road construction and maintenance.
_Edited by Skyler Rossi | srossi@themaneater.com_