The Week of April 13, 2026 |
On the Floor This week, the following bills were discussed on the Senate floor:
The Senate granted first round approval to the following legislation:
The Senate third read and passed the following bills this week:
With virtually no discussion, the Missouri Senate voted 18-11 in the early morning hours of April 16 to approve the latest iteration of the governor’s plan to eliminate the state income tax, likely by imposing a sales tax hike on additional goods and services. The measure passed by the minimum number of votes constitutionally required to clear the Senate and now returns to the House of Representatives, which approved an earlier version of the bill in March.
House Joint Resolution 173 & 174 would, if approved by voters, lessen existing state constitutional prohibitions against levying sales taxes on services or real estate transactions, authorizing lawmakers to impose sales taxes on additional goods and services in the effort to reduce and eventually eliminate the income tax.
The individual income tax currently provides about two-thirds of the state general revenue, or about $9.33 billion for the upcoming 2027 fiscal year. Opponents worry the move would drastically shift the tax burden from affluent Missourians to lower- and middle-income taxpayers. An April 1 analysis by the nonpartisan Missouri Budget Project estimated that up to 80% of Missourians would pay more in overall taxes, while the wealthiest 20% would enjoy a net tax cut.
The most significant change in the Senate version of HJR 173 & 174 leaves the changes to future lawmakers to decide how to phase out the tax with subsequent legislation. If the House votes to accept the Senate changes, the measure would go on the Nov. 3 statewide ballot.
After negotiating the compromise language, members of the minority caucus agreed not to block the measure from coming to vote, confident that voters will soundly reject it if it goes on the ballot.
Additionally, the Senate adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 21, encouraging all Missouri citizens to engage in appropriate patriotic programs and events in observance of Show-Me America 250 on July 4, 2026, and throughout the year.
Bills and Committees Judiciary Committee: The committee heard four bills this week:
Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics Committee: The committee heard House Bill 2366, which would modify provisions relating to employment of unauthorized aliens, and House Bill 3279, which would move the Missouri Community Service Commission from under the Missouri Department of Economic Development and move it to the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.
Appropriations Committee: On April 14, the committee passed its version of the proposed $52 billion state budget for the upcoming 2027 fiscal year. Of note is the reversing of a controversial plan by the House of Representatives to reallocate state funding for public colleges and universities in a way that could force some schools to close.
The budget now moves to the full Senate, which is expected to debate the appropriations bills in the coming days. Senate approval will then likely set up additional, and final, negotiations with the House of Representatives. Lawmakers face a hard May 8 constitutional deadline for sending the completed budget bills to the governor.
Under the House’s proposed allocation system, colleges would receive state funding solely based on student enrollment without accounting for other factors. While several schools would benefit from the new system, some would lose up to half of their state funding. Truman State University in Kirksville and both of Missouri’s historically Black universities – Lincoln University in Jefferson City and Harris-Stowe University in St. Louis – would be the hardest hit.
The Senate committee instead opted to go with the governor’s recommendation to fund higher education using the traditional model under which individual schools get at least 90% of their core funding from the prior year, with adjustments on the remaining amount possible based on a variety of factors. However, total higher education funding would remain frozen at FY 2026 levels under both the House and Senate plans.
State funding for K-12 public school districts would also remain at FY 2026 levels, falling about $190 million short of what state law says the districts should get for FY 2027. But the Senate committee did approve a $15 million bump for districts’ student transportation costs, an amount the House kept the same as in the current budget.
The Senate committee also rejected a $10 million increase in taxpayer funding for private school tuition vouchers. Missouri lawmakers allocated $50 million for private school vouchers in the current state budget, which the governor sought to bump the total to $60 million for FY 2027. Since the House approved the governor’s plan, the final amount looks to be a key point of contention in the final budget negotiations.
Senators also restored $51.5 million in cuts to the state’s child care subsidy program, which serves more than 27,000 low-income children and has a long waiting list of families seeking to participate.
Other News Judge dismisses challenge to taxpayer funding for vouchers A Cole County judge on April 14 dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of using taxpayer money to directly fund Missouri’s private school tuition voucher program, ruling the plaintiffs lack legal standing to bring the case, are barred from doing so by sovereign immunity and brought their claims against the wrong defendants.
The Missouri General Assembly created the tuition voucher program in 2021, which was initially funded exclusively through private donations. Last year, however, lawmakers appropriated $50 million for the program, marking the first time in state history Missouri authorized direct state funding for private K-12 schools.
The Missouri National Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union, challenged the voucher funding, alleging the appropriation bill containing it violated various provisions of the state constitution. However, the judge ruled that the MNEA lacked legal standing sue over the funding since it isn’t harmed by it.
“The General Assembly’s choice to spend money on a scholarship program does not inflict harm on public schools when the legislature has not diverted funds from public schools to cover the scholarship program,” he wrote. “With Plaintiffs’ claims built on this assumed harm to pubic-school teachers, students and parents, their claims are too speculative and remote for this Court to address.”
Even if the MNEA had legal standing, the judge said the lawsuit would be barred by sovereign immunity, which protects state officials from being sued over official actions. He further said that instead of suing the state and various officials thereof, plaintiffs really should have sued the private groups that have the duty under state law of distributing the voucher funding.
The judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it can’t be refiled. However, his ruling will likely be appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. The case is Missouri National Education Association, et al., v. State of Missouri, et al.
House supports investment changes voters rejected in 2022 On April 16, the Missouri House of Representatives voted 101-34, with 12 lawmakers voting “present,” to put a proposed constitutional amendment back on the statewide ballot seeking to loosen existing restrictions on how the state treasurer invests taxpayer money. The move comes just four years after voters rejected a similar measure with 54.3% opposition.
The proposed constitutional wording of House Joint Resolution 159 is largely the same as the prior version, which appeared on the 2022 ballot as Amendment 1. However, the ballot language is quite different. While the language for Amendment 1 said it would “allow the General Assembly to override the current constitutional restrictions of state investments by the state treasurer,” HJR 159’s ballot question instead asks voters to “allow the state treasurer to invest in other reasonable and prudent financial instruments and securities, as otherwise provided by law.”
Supporters of HJR 159 claim Amendment 1’s ballot language was biased and caused its defeat. However, in a legal battle over that language prior to the statewide vote, both the trial court and a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Western District upheld its accuracy, ruling that granting lawmakers the power to override constitutional safeguards that protect against risky investments was precisely what the measure would do.
The state treasurer says HJR 159 would grant him more flexibility to make investments with a higher rate of return. Critics of the legislation note that higher investment returns usually come with higher risks and that the existing constitutional restrictions serve to minimize the prospects for investment losses. If the Senate approves HJR 159, it would automatically go on the Nov. 3 statewide ballot.
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