Kansas City Business Journal
A diverse group is pushing for a change in the Missouri Constitution that would make it extremely difficult for lawmakers to overturn voter initiatives. It also could doom Kansas City and St. Louis to holding votes on their earnings taxes every five years in perpetuity. The Voter Protection Alliance said Tuesday that it submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office that would require either a three-fourths vote in both the House and Senate or a vote of the people to repeal or amend a citizen initiative.
Missouri Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, has introduced a resolution aimed at making voter referendums and initiatives a more difficult process. Senate Joint Resolution 13, brought to the Senate floor for a first read on Monday, would require that petition initiatives proposing constitutional changes be signed by 8 percent of legal voters in each congressional district ”” as opposed to the current requirement of 8 percent of voters in two-thirds of the congressional districts in Missouri ”” to make the ballot.
State officials have given the go-ahead for circulation of an initiative petition that would seek to severely limit insurers’ abilities to steer members away from certain health care providers. The petition by the group Missourians United for Choice in Healthcare would amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit state-regulated health insurers from influencing the selection of a care provider through higher co-pays or reimbursements and from limiting a provider’s opportunity to offer services according to terms of an offered health benefit plan.