MO Voters Approve Clean Missouri, Minimum Wage, Reject Gas Tax

MISSOURI — Missouri voters on Tuesday approved an amendment to the state constitution aimed at reforming redistricting and curbing corruption in state politics. Missourians also voted to give minimum wage workers a pay raise and rejected a hike to the gas tax targeted at repairing roads and bridges.

(SEE ALSO: Missouri Midterms 2018: Election Results And Up-To-Date Coverage)

Here's a run down of the most important down ballot decisions Show-Me State voters were asked to make on Tuesday.

Clean Missouri

Amendment 1 on November's ballot would reform how redistricting is done across the state, ban politicians from working as lobbyists for two years after leaving office and strengthen campaign finance laws. It has broad support from both Democrats and Republicans.

The ballot measure would "remove from the hands of Jefferson City politicians the power to redraw legislative districts and give it to a nonpartisan expert and a citizen commission,"according to the Post-Dispatch Editorial Board, which has endorsed the initiative. "Gerrymandering improperly entrenches not just the party in power but incumbents of both parties. The losers are the voters, who should be able to choose between real contests of ideas in every district, without district boundaries drawn to make it ridiculously difficult for a challenger to win."

But opponents of the measure say its redistricting changes could disenfranchise African American communities and some prominent black lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay and state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, have come out against the measure. They believe it could reduce the number of African American elected officials across the state.

St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones, however, penned an op-ed in favor of the amendment's reforms, writing in the St. Louis American that legislative maps will still protect minority voting power.

The state chapter of the NAACP has endorsed Clean Missouri, while the St. Louis American's voter guide encourages readers to vote yes.

Minimum Wage

Proposition B, which has been endorsed by the Post-Dispatch's Editorial Board, would increase the state's minimum wage to $8.60 per hour, and an additional $0.85 every year until 2023, resulting in an overall boost to $12 an hour over the next five years. State and local government workers would be except from the increase.

The state's current minimum wage is $7.85 per hour, 60 cents higher than the federal minimum wage.

In 2017, St. Louis increased its minimum wage to $10 per hour (another increase to $11 an hour was slated for this year), effectively giving about 35,000 local workers a raise, according to the Post-Dispatch. But despite the law not applying to small businesses, the Republican-controlled state legislature overturned the local ordinance, taking those workers' raises away, and making it illegal for cities to set their minimum wages higher than the state's.

Conservatives called the wage hike "job-killing," while some workers called it "life-changing."

“This is a tremendous, life-changing raise,” 27-year-old nursing assistant Alexis Straughter told the Post-Dispatch last year. “The raise will mean that I won’t have to stress as hard about making ends meet. It means my kids can do extracurricular activities.”

On Tuesday, voters will have a chance to decide for themselves which of those outlooks they agree with.

Read some minimum wage pros and cons from St. Louis Public Radio.

Gas Tax

Proposition D would raise Missouri's gas tax by $0.10 over four years to fund road improvement projects. If passed, it is expected to raise about $288 million a year for the state and $123 million a year for local governments.

Missouri drivers currently pay $0.17 per gallon in tax. If Proposition D passes, that number would increase to $0.28 — a little more than a quarter — by 2022.

"This is a vote for freedom and for safety," Republican State Rep. Jean Evans said of the initiative she sponsored, according to the Kansas City Star. Proponents like Evans point to the state's crumbling roads and bridges. Others — Republicans and Democrats alike — have called the tax hike "deceptive," saying it would hurt low-income Missourians while disproportionately benefiting more affluent areas of the state.

Read more gas tax pros and cons from St. Louis Public Radio.

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