The Week of April 20, 2026 |
On the Floor This week, the following bills were discussed on the Senate floor:
The Senate third read and passed the following bills this week:
The budget process for the 2027 fiscal year moved a step closer to completion this week as the Missouri Senate passed its version of a state spending plan, setting up negotiations with the House of Representatives over the final budget so both chambers can vote to send the various appropriations bills to the governor by the May 8 constitutional deadline.
However, basic state funding for local public school districts won’t be subject to negotiation as both the Senate’s budget and the previously approved House version call for underfunding K-12 schools, providing $190 million less than the minimum amount called for by state law for FY 2027. An amendment to fund K-12 schools at the statutory level was defeated on a vote of 10-20.
But lawmakers are expected to haggle over a $10 million increase in direct taxpayer funding for private school tuition vouchers approved by the House but rejected by the Senate, which instead opted to keep the voucher funding at the $50 million level authorized for FY 2026. A $15 million increase for K-12 student transportation costs endorsed by the Senate, but not the House, also will be a point of negotiation.
Another major difference between the chambers is how to allocate funding for public colleges and universities. While the House approved a radical overhaul that would base funding solely on student enrollment, the Senate rejected that plan in favor of the traditional allocation method that accounts for multiple factors but guarantees a base amount from the previous year. Under the House proposal, some schools would lose up to half of their state funding and likely be forced to close within a couple years.
With the budget out of the Senate a full two weeks ahead of the deadline, lawmakers are in a position to avoid pushing the process to the last minute for the first time in eight years. Although finishing the budget just hours before the deadline once was a rarity, lawmakers last granted the appropriations bills early passage in 2018.
The following bills were truly agreed to and finally passed this week and will be sent to the governor’s desk for his consideration:
The income tax ballot measure was also truly agreed to and finally passed this week. House Joint Resolution 173 & 174 which 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. By default, HJR 173 & 174 automatically goes on the Nov. 3 general election ballot for voter consideration. However, the governor has the constitutional authority to move the vote up to the Aug. 4 primary election.
The measure would nullify existing state constitutional prohibitions against imposing sales taxes on services and real estate transactions and broadly authorize the Missouri General Assembly “to impose taxes on transactions involving any goods and services.” It would also exempt sales tax hikes from being subject to a constitutional prohibition against lawmakers raising taxes without voter approval and waive another provision earmarking revenue from taxes on motor vehicle sales for road and bridge projects.
While the governor claimed in his State of the State address in January that any new sales taxes would not apply to “agriculture, health care or real estate,” the measure contains no such exemptions and in fact would override the existing ban on taxing real estate transactions.
The new sales tax revenue would be used to eliminate Missouri’s individual income tax, which currently provides two-thirds of state general revenue – a total of about $9.33 billion for the upcoming 2027 fiscal year. The move could drastically shift the state tax burden 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 sales tax expansion would fall especially hard on senior citizens living on fixed incomes. Since Missouri currently does not tax Social Security benefits, those senior citizens would see no savings from eliminating the state income tax but experience a significant tax increase through an expanded sales tax applying to every good and service they purchase.
Bills and Committees Judiciary Committee: The committee heard the following bills this week:
Rules, Joint Rules, Resolutions and Ethics Committee: The committee heard three bills this week. Senate Bill 1688 and Senate Bill 1694 would both establish the Missouri Downtown and Rural Economic Stimulus Act Extension Act to extend the Missouri Downtown Rural Economic Stimulus Act. This act allows development areas and development project areas approved under both MODESAEA and MODESA to be modified. House Concurrent Resolutions 23 calls upon the members of the Missouri congressional delegation to uphold the principles of federalism and to be proponents of appropriate action that affirms the authority of states to govern their election processes.
Other News House approves gender definitions, bathroom restrictions On April 20, the Missouri House of Representatives voted 101-48 to approve legislation that could legally define transgender people out of existence and so tightly restrict who can access what bathrooms as to prohibit parents from taking their young children to use publicly owned facilities in some situations. The bill now advances to the Senate.
House Bill 2536 would, for the first time, define “male” and “female” in state law, leaving no legal room for other possibilities. And the definitions describe those genders in a way that most people likely wouldn’t recognize.
For example, female would be defined as “an individual who naturally has, had, will, or would have, but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization.” Similarly, the bill declares a male to be “an individual who naturally has, had, will, or would have, but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes sperm for fertilization.”
The bill also imposes restrictions on the use of gender-segregated facilities that could cause a host of practical problems – and not just for transgender people. The restrictions would apply only to publicly owned facilities and not private businesses. The public entities could face private lawsuits for monetary damages over alleged violations of HB 2536.
One concerning provision says: “No individual shall enter a restroom, changing room, or sleeping quarters that is designated for females or males unless he or she is a member of that sex.”
Under that plain language, a baby girl whose father takes her into the men’s room to change her diaper would be violating the law. In addition, a mother visiting her son at a public university would be legally prohibited from entering his dorm room.
Judicial Commission picks three Court of Appeals finalists The Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission on April 21 announced its three finalists to fill a vacancy on the state Court of Appeals Southern District, which is based in Springfield and has jurisdiction over cases from 44 counties. The governor has 60 days to appoint one of the finalists or forfeit the selection to the commission.
The finalists are a Greene County Circuit Judge from Springfield, Jasper County Circuit Judges from Joplin and Walnut Grove, and a member of the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission, the quasi-judicial body that hears appeals of decisions made by state agencies.
Whoever gets the appointment will replace Judge Don Burrell Jr., a 2007 appointee of Gov. Matt Blunt. Burrell retired March 1 after more than 18 years on the Southern District bench.
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