JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.&nbsp;- The Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) announced that due to the federal government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has informed state agencies that November 2025 SNAP cannot be issued at this time, according to a media release from the agency.

SNAP benefits are 100 percent federally funded through USDA-FNS. DSS has received official communication from USDA that there is not sufficient funding to issue SNAP benefits for the month of November.

“We are closely monitoring this situation, and benefits will be issued as soon as federal funds become available," said&nbsp;Jess Bax, DSS Director. "We encourage SNAP participants to look at the potential of using their October balance to stretch into November if possible given this situation."

DSS continues to work with USDA and other federal partners to monitor developments and will keep the public informed.

“We understand the uncertainty caused by the shutdown,” said&nbsp;Director Mandi Adams, Family Support Division (FSD). “FSD’s team is committed to keeping Missourians informed of any changes.”

DSS encourages Missourians who may be affected to:

"Missouri's Food Banks have worked to prepare in anticipation of increased need caused by the federal shutdown and impacts to SNAP benefits," said&nbsp;Joey Keys, Feeding Missouri Board Chair and CEO of Southeast Missouri Food Bank. "We stand ready to help neighbors as far as our resources allow. However, we cannot do this alone. Now, more than ever we need our communities to support their Food Banks."&nbsp;

FSD will continue to accept and process SNAP applications, reported changes, and mid-certifications received on or after November 1, 2025, as normal.

For updates and resources, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://mydss.mo.gov/federal-shutdown-impacts" target="_blank">mydss.mo.gov/federal-shutdown-impacts</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1689674819900.png" alt=" " />
 <figcaption> </figcaption>
 </figure>JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.&nbsp;- The Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) announced that due to the federal government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has informed state agencies that November 2025 SNAP cannot be issued at this time, according to a media release from the agency.SNAP benefits are 100 percent federally funded through USDA-FNS. DSS has received official communication from USDA that there is not sufficient funding to issue SNAP benefits for the month of November.“We are closely monitoring this situation, and benefits will be issued as soon as federal funds become available," said&nbsp;Jess Bax, DSS Director. "We encourage SNAP participants to look at the potential of using their October balance to stretch into November if possible given this situation."DSS continues to work with USDA and other federal partners to monitor developments and will keep the public informed.“We understand the uncertainty caused by the shutdown,” said&nbsp;Director Mandi Adams, Family Support Division (FSD). “FSD’s team is committed to keeping Missourians informed of any changes.”DSS encourages Missourians who may be affected to:<ul>
 <li>Review available local food resources such as&nbsp;<a href="https://feedingmissouri.org/get-help/your-fb/">food banks and pantries</a>.</li><li>Monitor DSS social media channels and&nbsp;<a href="https://mydss.mo.gov/federal-shutdown-impacts" target="_blank">website</a>&nbsp;for the most up-to-date information.</li>
 </ul>"Missouri's Food Banks have worked to prepare in anticipation of increased need caused by the federal shutdown and impacts to SNAP benefits," said&nbsp;Joey Keys, Feeding Missouri Board Chair and CEO of Southeast Missouri Food Bank. "We stand ready to help neighbors as far as our resources allow. However, we cannot do this alone. Now, more than ever we need our communities to support their Food Banks."&nbsp;FSD will continue to accept and process SNAP applications, reported changes, and mid-certifications received on or after November 1, 2025, as normal.For updates and resources, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://mydss.mo.gov/federal-shutdown-impacts" target="_blank">mydss.mo.gov/federal-shutdown-impacts</a>.###

Missouri SNAP benefits on hold for November due to government shutdown

Policy proposals will be presented to a school-funding task force in December, giving the group a year to fine tune them and present them to the governor

By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ahanshaw/">Annelise Hanshaw</a>&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>

The funding formula for Missouri’s public schools is poised for wide-ranging changes as work groups studying elements of the model reached the halfway point of their work at meetings on Monday.

The groups, led by the state education department’s former finance chief Kari Monsees, have convened three times each. They are scheduled to meet three additional times prior to presenting recommendations to the larger task force in December.

Proposed changes are due to Gov. Mike Kehoe by December 2026. Here is where the policy discussions are heading.&nbsp;

The funding efforts working group is primarily focused on a measure called the state adequacy target, which is intended to represent the per-pupil cost for districts to provide an adequate education.

Currently, this number is calculated by looking at the per-pupil expenditures of “performance districts,” or districts who score at least 90% of the points possible on the state’s performance review, called the Missouri School Improvement Program.

The group is not considering a dramatic shift away from this system but is instead moving toward a new way of classifying performance districts. The proposal discussed Monday would look at districts’ expenditures that score in the top 100 of the Missouri School Improvement Program.

Additionally, the calculation would be based on the districts’ enrollment numbers rather than attendance and would include extra weighting for students with disabilities, low-income students and English-language learners.

This method would be less volatile with changes to MSIP, which is on its&nbsp;<a href="https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/missouri-history-assessment-and-accountability" target="_blank">sixth iteration since its inception</a>&nbsp;in 1991, since the number of districts setting the average would remain steady.

During the switch from MSIP5 to MSIP6, a system deemed “more rigorous” by education officials, the number of performance districts dropped from over 200 to 23. The state adequacy target then rose from $6,375 to $7,145.

The shift added an extra $300 million to fully fund the foundation formula in fiscal year 2026. In&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/01/28/gov-mike-kehoe-dips-deeply-into-surplus-as-missouri-budget-grows-to-nearly-54-billion/">his budget request in January</a>, Kehoe excluded the $300 million, though lawmakers&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/05/08/lawmakers-negotiating-missouri-budget-add-300m-to-public-schools-spending/">decided after tense negotiations to fully fund the formula</a>&nbsp;with the new boost.

Kehoe, in his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sos.mo.gov/library/reference/orders/2025/eo14" target="_blank">executive order</a>&nbsp;creating the Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force, asked for the group to create a formula that would provide fiscal year 2025 funding levels — prior to the $300 million boost.

But the change discussed Monday is not a cost-saving measure. Monsees estimated the proposal would drive the target to $10,367.

“If we are going to increase this side of the equation significantly, I just want to (ask) what that means for the rest of the equation,” said Don Thalhuber, policy director for the Senate Democratic caucus who helped draft the state’s current formula in 2005. “Because we don’t have infinite money.”

A deduction in the formula is likely to balance out the adequacy target’s surge, Monsees said, pointing to a factor that subtracts local funding to lower the amount due to wealthier districts.

“The local effort is tied back to 2004’s assessed values that is very much deflated as well,” he said. “So the state adequacy target is likely to go up, but then at the same time, your local effort is going to go up.”

Missouri’s formula considers local funding as a counterbalance to state aid, meaning that wealthier districts with adequate tax revenue receive less on a per-pupil basis. Finding a way to subtract local effort as part of the formula is a “conundrum,” Monsees told the group last week.

The local effort working group pointed to problems with two main models, one based on property taxes and the other on local wealth.

“We come up with these proxies that somehow represent what the capacity of a local community is to generate funds for their school, and the state’s obviously going to try to balance that across communities. But if that representation doesn’t match the actual cash that comes in in revenue, we may not be balancing the scales as much as we would want to,” Monsees said.

The group has been critical of the current formula’s reliance on property tax revenue. And with lawmakers considering changes to the property tax system, the factor feels unsteady.

“We have got something that may not be equitable and may not be stable,” said Monsees.

He suggested the group look for two to four factors so they are not reliant on just one variable, and they adjourned their discussion Wednesday without direction otherwise.

A working group looking at the way students are counted in the formula is debating a shift to enrollment-based funding rather than basing state aid on a district’s average attendance.

Enrollment-based funding is not a new concept in Missouri. A&nbsp;<a href="https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/school-funding-missouri-state-board-educationbaker" target="_blank">2023 study commissioned by the State Board of Education</a>&nbsp;recommended a switch away from attendance funding, saying attendance-based models disadvantage higher poverty districts.

And in 2024, state lawmakers&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/12/missouri-senate-strikes-deal-to-boost-public-school-funding-in-private-school-tax-credit-bill/">passed a large education package</a>&nbsp;that included a gradual shift to funding 50% based on attendance and 50% based on enrollment by 2029.

Two other studies that the foundation formula task force has delved into&nbsp;<a href="https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/mo-funding-formula-alignedbellwether" target="_blank">also recommend</a>&nbsp;enrollment-based student counts.

But with state lawmakers having recently negotiated the shift to a 50/50 approach, Monsees told the group that basing the formula purely on enrollment could be “not as easy of a switch politically.”

“There is still a little bit of hesitation there to remove the financial incentive that comes with including attendance,” he said.

The group is also evaluating how different student groups pull more state money and seems likely to&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/09/24/work-groups-contemplate-changing-missouri-schools-need-based-funding/">eliminate funding cliffs</a>&nbsp;that are written into the current formula.

Low-income students, those with special education services and English-language learners have an extra multiplier in the formula, giving their districts more money to provide services. But there is a threshold built in, assuming a base level of students with various needs. Only those with a higher percentage of students in these groups pull the extra funds currently.

The student counts working group has been pursuing a plan to eliminate the threshold.

“This idea of removing the thresholds and weighting all the students, it is certainly going to be a cost driver to the overall equation,” Monsees told the group.

The discussion Monday dug into the weights with more specificity, with the group considering a multi-tiered system for special education funding.

Monsees gave options of grouping types of disabilities into funding subcategories or creating a tiered system based on the amount of time a student spends out of the general education classroom. The group members preferred the latter.

Jordan Dickey, assistant superintendent of finance for Joplin Schools, said that kids with the same disabilities may not have the same support needs.

“Depending on what their label is, it doesn’t necessarily reflect the level of service that they need,” she said.

She recommended a much greater weight for students who receive educational time out of the general education classroom.

Kehoe’s executive order includes a charge to give districts with strong performance bonus funding. Performance incentives would be new in Missouri and are largely unprecedented, other than&nbsp;<a href="https://comptroller.tn.gov/content/dam/cot/orea/advanced-search/2025/TISAoutcomesfunding.pdf" target="_blank">a model in Tennessee</a>&nbsp;that awards schools when students reach certain targets.

The group studying performance incentives does not have a definitive plan, as of the conclusion of its third meeting last week, but is leaning toward promoting literacy and numeracy.

Mike Podgursky, a semi-retired economics professor from the University of Missouri-Columbia and affiliated scholar at the Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research, suggested the group pick one or two priorities rather than giving money for “a whole bunch of things.”

“There’s a case for really focusing on early literacy,” he said. “If these kids can’t read by grades three and four, then you forget about math at grade eight and everything else.”

The group discussed incentives for literacy at the third grade level and math performance in eighth grade at length.

Members are considering building the rewards into the formula or siloing them as a separate source of funding.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761130183666.png" alt=" Kari Monsees, the state education department’s former finance chief, discusses the state’s public education funding formula during the Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force meeting Sept. 9 in Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> Kari Monsees, the state education department’s former finance chief, discusses the state’s public education funding formula during the Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force meeting Sept. 9 in Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Policy proposals will be presented to a school-funding task force in December, giving the group a year to fine tune them and present them to the governor</h2>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/ahanshaw/">Annelise Hanshaw</a>&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>The funding formula for Missouri’s public schools is poised for wide-ranging changes as work groups studying elements of the model reached the halfway point of their work at meetings on Monday.The groups, led by the state education department’s former finance chief Kari Monsees, have convened three times each. They are scheduled to meet three additional times prior to presenting recommendations to the larger task force in December.Proposed changes are due to Gov. Mike Kehoe by December 2026. Here is where the policy discussions are heading.&nbsp;<h2>Funding targets</h2>The funding efforts working group is primarily focused on a measure called the state adequacy target, which is intended to represent the per-pupil cost for districts to provide an adequate education.Currently, this number is calculated by looking at the per-pupil expenditures of “performance districts,” or districts who score at least 90% of the points possible on the state’s performance review, called the Missouri School Improvement Program.The group is not considering a dramatic shift away from this system but is instead moving toward a new way of classifying performance districts. The proposal discussed Monday would look at districts’ expenditures that score in the top 100 of the Missouri School Improvement Program.Additionally, the calculation would be based on the districts’ enrollment numbers rather than attendance and would include extra weighting for students with disabilities, low-income students and English-language learners.This method would be less volatile with changes to MSIP, which is on its&nbsp;<a href="https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/missouri-history-assessment-and-accountability" target="_blank">sixth iteration since its inception</a>&nbsp;in 1991, since the number of districts setting the average would remain steady.During the switch from MSIP5 to MSIP6, a system deemed “more rigorous” by education officials, the number of performance districts dropped from over 200 to 23. The state adequacy target then rose from $6,375 to $7,145.The shift added an extra $300 million to fully fund the foundation formula in fiscal year 2026. In&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/01/28/gov-mike-kehoe-dips-deeply-into-surplus-as-missouri-budget-grows-to-nearly-54-billion/">his budget request in January</a>, Kehoe excluded the $300 million, though lawmakers&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/05/08/lawmakers-negotiating-missouri-budget-add-300m-to-public-schools-spending/">decided after tense negotiations to fully fund the formula</a>&nbsp;with the new boost.Kehoe, in his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sos.mo.gov/library/reference/orders/2025/eo14" target="_blank">executive order</a>&nbsp;creating the Missouri School Funding Modernization Task Force, asked for the group to create a formula that would provide fiscal year 2025 funding levels — prior to the $300 million boost.But the change discussed Monday is not a cost-saving measure. Monsees estimated the proposal would drive the target to $10,367.“If we are going to increase this side of the equation significantly, I just want to (ask) what that means for the rest of the equation,” said Don Thalhuber, policy director for the Senate Democratic caucus who helped draft the state’s current formula in 2005. “Because we don’t have infinite money.”A deduction in the formula is likely to balance out the adequacy target’s surge, Monsees said, pointing to a factor that subtracts local funding to lower the amount due to wealthier districts.“The local effort is tied back to 2004’s assessed values that is very much deflated as well,” he said. “So the state adequacy target is likely to go up, but then at the same time, your local effort is going to go up.”<h2>Local effort</h2>Missouri’s formula considers local funding as a counterbalance to state aid, meaning that wealthier districts with adequate tax revenue receive less on a per-pupil basis. Finding a way to subtract local effort as part of the formula is a “conundrum,” Monsees told the group last week.The local effort working group pointed to problems with two main models, one based on property taxes and the other on local wealth.“We come up with these proxies that somehow represent what the capacity of a local community is to generate funds for their school, and the state’s obviously going to try to balance that across communities. But if that representation doesn’t match the actual cash that comes in in revenue, we may not be balancing the scales as much as we would want to,” Monsees said.The group has been critical of the current formula’s reliance on property tax revenue. And with lawmakers considering changes to the property tax system, the factor feels unsteady.“We have got something that may not be equitable and may not be stable,” said Monsees.He suggested the group look for two to four factors so they are not reliant on just one variable, and they adjourned their discussion Wednesday without direction otherwise.<h2>Student counts</h2>A working group looking at the way students are counted in the formula is debating a shift to enrollment-based funding rather than basing state aid on a district’s average attendance.Enrollment-based funding is not a new concept in Missouri. A&nbsp;<a href="https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/school-funding-missouri-state-board-educationbaker" target="_blank">2023 study commissioned by the State Board of Education</a>&nbsp;recommended a switch away from attendance funding, saying attendance-based models disadvantage higher poverty districts.And in 2024, state lawmakers&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/12/missouri-senate-strikes-deal-to-boost-public-school-funding-in-private-school-tax-credit-bill/">passed a large education package</a>&nbsp;that included a gradual shift to funding 50% based on attendance and 50% based on enrollment by 2029.Two other studies that the foundation formula task force has delved into&nbsp;<a href="https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/mo-funding-formula-alignedbellwether" target="_blank">also recommend</a>&nbsp;enrollment-based student counts.But with state lawmakers having recently negotiated the shift to a 50/50 approach, Monsees told the group that basing the formula purely on enrollment could be “not as easy of a switch politically.”“There is still a little bit of hesitation there to remove the financial incentive that comes with including attendance,” he said.The group is also evaluating how different student groups pull more state money and seems likely to&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/09/24/work-groups-contemplate-changing-missouri-schools-need-based-funding/">eliminate funding cliffs</a>&nbsp;that are written into the current formula.Low-income students, those with special education services and English-language learners have an extra multiplier in the formula, giving their districts more money to provide services. But there is a threshold built in, assuming a base level of students with various needs. Only those with a higher percentage of students in these groups pull the extra funds currently.The student counts working group has been pursuing a plan to eliminate the threshold.“This idea of removing the thresholds and weighting all the students, it is certainly going to be a cost driver to the overall equation,” Monsees told the group.The discussion Monday dug into the weights with more specificity, with the group considering a multi-tiered system for special education funding.Monsees gave options of grouping types of disabilities into funding subcategories or creating a tiered system based on the amount of time a student spends out of the general education classroom. The group members preferred the latter.Jordan Dickey, assistant superintendent of finance for Joplin Schools, said that kids with the same disabilities may not have the same support needs.“Depending on what their label is, it doesn’t necessarily reflect the level of service that they need,” she said.She recommended a much greater weight for students who receive educational time out of the general education classroom.<h2>Performance incentives</h2>Kehoe’s executive order includes a charge to give districts with strong performance bonus funding. Performance incentives would be new in Missouri and are largely unprecedented, other than&nbsp;<a href="https://comptroller.tn.gov/content/dam/cot/orea/advanced-search/2025/TISAoutcomesfunding.pdf" target="_blank">a model in Tennessee</a>&nbsp;that awards schools when students reach certain targets.The group studying performance incentives does not have a definitive plan, as of the conclusion of its third meeting last week, but is leaning toward promoting literacy and numeracy.Mike Podgursky, a semi-retired economics professor from the University of Missouri-Columbia and affiliated scholar at the Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research, suggested the group pick one or two priorities rather than giving money for “a whole bunch of things.”“There’s a case for really focusing on early literacy,” he said. “If these kids can’t read by grades three and four, then you forget about math at grade eight and everything else.”The group discussed incentives for literacy at the third grade level and math performance in eighth grade at length.Members are considering building the rewards into the formula or siloing them as a separate source of funding.

Work groups zero in on proposed changes to Missouri school funding formula

HOLT COUNTY —One person died in an accident just before 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Holt County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Nissan Pathfinder driven by a 45-year-old Independence man was northbound on Interstate 29 three miles north of Craig.

The SUV traveled off the west side of the road, overturned and the driver was ejected.&nbsp; &nbsp;The driver was pronounced dead at the scene and&nbsp; transported to Rupp Funeral Home. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

HOLT COUNTY —One person died in an accident just before 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Holt County.The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Nissan Pathfinder driven by a 45-year-old Independence man was northbound on Interstate 29 three miles north of Craig.The SUV traveled off the west side of the road, overturned and the driver was ejected.&nbsp; &nbsp;The driver was pronounced dead at the scene and&nbsp; transported to Rupp Funeral Home. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

Missouri man dies after ejected in SUV rollover accident

Rapidly rising home values are shifting the property tax burden to residences as slow growth in other real estate diminishes the effect of rollbacks under the Hancock Amendment

BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/rudi-keller/">RUDI KELLER</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>

The most popular idea for controlling property tax bills, the chairman of a Missouri House committee said Monday, is to set a separate tax rate for each of four types of property subject to the annual adjustments required in the state Constitution.

Since June, the Missouri House&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/06/25/missouri-lawmakers-could-return-to-session-this-fall-to-debate-property-taxes/">Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform</a>&nbsp;has been&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/08/28/missouri-house-committee-urged-to-silo-property-into-separate-classes-for-taxes/">holding hearings</a>&nbsp;around the state and discussing legislation it could propose to quiet outrage over rapidly rising residential tax bills. One of the most popular ideas, said the chairman, Republican state Rep. Tim Taylor of Bunceton, is to “silo” the four types of property — agricultural, commercial, personal and residential — so increases in assessed value in one subclass are not diluted by stagnant values in another.

“If one spikes and the others don’t, it’s watered down, so (the rollback) doesn’t take effect,” Taylor said during a hearing Monday to discuss possible legislation. “So the goal is to get them in their own little category.”

Support for walling off the various classes of property is coming from officials, the public and the State Tax Commission, Taylor said to reporters after the meeting.&nbsp;

“Of all things that we discussed, not only is that coming from us, but from the people, and from the tax commission itself,” Taylor said. “That, in itself, can potentially fix a lot of issues that we’re seeing across the state.”’

The special committee was created in June after lawmakers passed&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/06/05/missouri-governor-allows-more-spending-property-tax-cap-as-he-pursues-stadium-deal/">a hastily crafted bill</a>&nbsp;to cap tax bills in 97 counties. It follows several years of public upset over rapidly increasing assessments intended to bring taxable values in line with market values.&nbsp;

The speed at which the bill was written and passed is something that Taylor said has to be fixed. In 75 counties, tax bills are not allowed to increase more than 5% per year from a base amount, or by the rate of inflation, whichever is greater. The provision, Taylor said, was supposed to be whichever in less.

In 22 others, no increase in the tax bill would be allowed.There are exceptions built in for newly voted levies and the additional value from improvements.

Many of the larger counties of the state, including Boone, Greene, Jackson, St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis, were excluded altogether from the legislation.

Taylor told the committee he intends to have a bill drafted with nearly a dozen ideas that have been raised in the hearings or come from legislation in past years. House Speaker Jon Patterson wants the bill to be ready when the next regular session opens in January, he said.

Along with walling off subclasses of property, ideas that will be in Taylor’s bill include:

Not every idea will be as popular as siloing property classes, Taylor said.

“It’s my responsibility to try to put something together,” he said. “And again, the speaker said, ‘I’d like a big, beautiful bill,’ so we’ll see what we can do.”

The committee’s ranking Democrat, state Rep. Kathy Steinhoff of Columbia, also had a list of ideas she had crafted with input from other Democrats on the committee. Her list calls for homebuyers to file statements of the price of their new property — called a certificate of value — with assessors when homes change hands.

That idea did not make Taylor’s list. There are things Democrats on the committee would like to see but haven’t had a chance to discuss, Steinhoff added.

“There’s other things that we’re very interested in, but we don’t think we’ve really hashed out in committee a clear understanding of it,” she said.

The biggest portion of any property tax bill is the levy for local schools. At the same time the committee is studying property taxes, a separate commission — the&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/04/23/missouri-governors-school-funding-task-force-assembles-slowly/">School Funding Modernization Task Force</a>&nbsp;— has been meeting to decide on how state support should supplement local tax revenue.

Part of Monday’s hearing was set aside to hear from state Sen. Rusty Black, a Chillicothe Republican who is chairing the school funding panel. He said his task force will be watching closely so its report, due in December 2026, is based on the tax base available at the time.

“The two decisions intertwine,” Black said. “Watching what comes out of here and what kind of things start to have some traction is going to be very important as the task force continues to meet, and possibly come up with a plan to give to the governor.”

The idea of siloing the types of property is growing in popularity because of the way taxes are adjusted after the biennial reassessment. Commercial and agricultural property taxes are tied to productivity and potential to produce income, while the values of homes and vehicles are tied to the price the property would bring in the market.Under the Missouri Constitution’s Hancock Amendment, when the value of property in a taxing district grows faster than inflation, rates are supposed to be reduced. But when one class of property is increasing faster than others, the effect is a smaller rollback than if the class of property had its own rate.

While the idea of siloing property classes is popular, there is little consensus among the committee’s 20 members on other changes that should be made, Taylor said.&nbsp;

“If you could get 20 people to all agree on any one thing,” Taylor said, “it would be a miracle.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761049988985.png" alt=" State Rep. Kathy Steinhoff of Columbia, right, speaks during the Monday meeting of the Missouri House Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform. while the chairman, state Rep. Tim Taylor of Bunceton, far left, looks on (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> State Rep. Kathy Steinhoff of Columbia, right, speaks during the Monday meeting of the Missouri House Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform. while the chairman, state Rep. Tim Taylor of Bunceton, far left, looks on (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Rapidly rising home values are shifting the property tax burden to residences as slow growth in other real estate diminishes the effect of rollbacks under the Hancock Amendment</h2>BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/rudi-keller/">RUDI KELLER</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>The most popular idea for controlling property tax bills, the chairman of a Missouri House committee said Monday, is to set a separate tax rate for each of four types of property subject to the annual adjustments required in the state Constitution.Since June, the Missouri House&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/06/25/missouri-lawmakers-could-return-to-session-this-fall-to-debate-property-taxes/">Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform</a>&nbsp;has been&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/08/28/missouri-house-committee-urged-to-silo-property-into-separate-classes-for-taxes/">holding hearings</a>&nbsp;around the state and discussing legislation it could propose to quiet outrage over rapidly rising residential tax bills. One of the most popular ideas, said the chairman, Republican state Rep. Tim Taylor of Bunceton, is to “silo” the four types of property — agricultural, commercial, personal and residential — so increases in assessed value in one subclass are not diluted by stagnant values in another.“If one spikes and the others don’t, it’s watered down, so (the rollback) doesn’t take effect,” Taylor said during a hearing Monday to discuss possible legislation. “So the goal is to get them in their own little category.”Support for walling off the various classes of property is coming from officials, the public and the State Tax Commission, Taylor said to reporters after the meeting.&nbsp;“Of all things that we discussed, not only is that coming from us, but from the people, and from the tax commission itself,” Taylor said. “That, in itself, can potentially fix a lot of issues that we’re seeing across the state.”’The special committee was created in June after lawmakers passed&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/06/05/missouri-governor-allows-more-spending-property-tax-cap-as-he-pursues-stadium-deal/">a hastily crafted bill</a>&nbsp;to cap tax bills in 97 counties. It follows several years of public upset over rapidly increasing assessments intended to bring taxable values in line with market values.&nbsp;The speed at which the bill was written and passed is something that Taylor said has to be fixed. In 75 counties, tax bills are not allowed to increase more than 5% per year from a base amount, or by the rate of inflation, whichever is greater. The provision, Taylor said, was supposed to be whichever in less.In 22 others, no increase in the tax bill would be allowed.There are exceptions built in for newly voted levies and the additional value from improvements.Many of the larger counties of the state, including Boone, Greene, Jackson, St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis, were excluded altogether from the legislation.Taylor told the committee he intends to have a bill drafted with nearly a dozen ideas that have been raised in the hearings or come from legislation in past years. House Speaker Jon Patterson wants the bill to be ready when the next regular session opens in January, he said.Along with walling off subclasses of property, ideas that will be in Taylor’s bill include:<ul>
 <li>Requiring all local tax elections to be on November ballots when turnout is highest.</li><li>Allowing local governments to enact additional sales taxes to replace or reduce property taxes.</li><li>Making debt levies subject to the Constitution’s rollback provisions.</li><li>Wording ballot descriptions so the impact of new or renewed tax levies is stated as the cost per $100,000 of assessed value instead of the cost per $100 of value, which is the current method.</li>
 </ul>Not every idea will be as popular as siloing property classes, Taylor said.“It’s my responsibility to try to put something together,” he said. “And again, the speaker said, ‘I’d like a big, beautiful bill,’ so we’ll see what we can do.”The committee’s ranking Democrat, state Rep. Kathy Steinhoff of Columbia, also had a list of ideas she had crafted with input from other Democrats on the committee. Her list calls for homebuyers to file statements of the price of their new property — called a certificate of value — with assessors when homes change hands.That idea did not make Taylor’s list. There are things Democrats on the committee would like to see but haven’t had a chance to discuss, Steinhoff added.“There’s other things that we’re very interested in, but we don’t think we’ve really hashed out in committee a clear understanding of it,” she said.The biggest portion of any property tax bill is the levy for local schools. At the same time the committee is studying property taxes, a separate commission — the&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/04/23/missouri-governors-school-funding-task-force-assembles-slowly/">School Funding Modernization Task Force</a>&nbsp;— has been meeting to decide on how state support should supplement local tax revenue.Part of Monday’s hearing was set aside to hear from state Sen. Rusty Black, a Chillicothe Republican who is chairing the school funding panel. He said his task force will be watching closely so its report, due in December 2026, is based on the tax base available at the time.“The two decisions intertwine,” Black said. “Watching what comes out of here and what kind of things start to have some traction is going to be very important as the task force continues to meet, and possibly come up with a plan to give to the governor.”The idea of siloing the types of property is growing in popularity because of the way taxes are adjusted after the biennial reassessment. Commercial and agricultural property taxes are tied to productivity and potential to produce income, while the values of homes and vehicles are tied to the price the property would bring in the market.Under the Missouri Constitution’s Hancock Amendment, when the value of property in a taxing district grows faster than inflation, rates are supposed to be reduced. But when one class of property is increasing faster than others, the effect is a smaller rollback than if the class of property had its own rate.While the idea of siloing property classes is popular, there is little consensus among the committee’s 20 members on other changes that should be made, Taylor said.&nbsp;“If you could get 20 people to all agree on any one thing,” Taylor said, “it would be a miracle.”

Missouri House committee eyes plan to silo property classes for taxation

WASHINGTON — The&nbsp;federal government shutdown&nbsp;is moving into its third week with&nbsp;no end in sight. Most members of the House of Representatives are finally back Washington after being out for over a month. Second District Kansas Congressman what he's doing after arriving back in the nation's capitol.

House Speaker Mike Johnson hinted he might call the House back into session if Senate passes bill to pay furloughed workers.&nbsp; That could happen this week.

WASHINGTON — The&nbsp;federal government shutdown&nbsp;is moving into its third week with&nbsp;no end in sight. Most members of the House of Representatives are finally back Washington after being out for over a month. Second District Kansas Congressman what he's doing after arriving back in the nation's capitol.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Day 20 of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SchumerShutdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SchumerShutdown</a>. <a href="https://t.co/iFUZTistPq">pic.twitter.com/iFUZTistPq</a>&mdash; Rep. Derek Schmidt Press (@RepDerekSchmidt) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepDerekSchmidt/status/1980295827429179669?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 20, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>House Speaker Mike Johnson hinted he might call the House back into session if Senate passes bill to pay furloughed workers.&nbsp; That could happen this week.

🎥Congressman Schmidt: Government shutdown very frustrating

Though food banks statewide said they have mostly made up shortfalls from canceled deliveries, some worry that coming changes to SNAP will leave Missourians hungrier

By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/squinn/">Steph Quinn</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>

Missouri has lost nearly 1.6 million pounds of food aid since May due to sudden cuts to a federal program that buys food from U.S. farmers and sends it to food banks across the country.

That’s 146,400 pounds of cheese, 433,070 pounds of canned and frozen chicken, 1.2 million eggs, 38,250 gallons of milk, 120,000 pounds of pulled pork, 115,200 pounds of sliced turkey breast, 180,000 pounds of dried plums and 114,000 pounds of frozen pork chops.

The Trump administration in&nbsp;<a href="https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/following-the-usda-food-and-farm-funding/" target="_blank">late March</a>&nbsp;slashed $500 million that had already been allocated to food aid nationwide through The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP. That canceled 124 scheduled deliveries to Missouri food banks, according to data obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture by&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-food-cuts/" target="_blank">ProPublica</a>&nbsp;and shared with The Independent.

Food banks across the state said they have largely made up shortfalls from the March cuts by increasing their food purchases. But some food bank leaders worry that hunger in Missouri will increase with the implementation of changes signed into law this summer to federal assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

“Food banks are the safety net to the safety net,” said Leigh Anne Haun, executive director of Feeding Missouri, a coalition of the state’s six regional food banks. “When you talk about programs like SNAP…any time those start to get strained, or there’s holes in those nets, the food banks are the safety net underneath.”

They are also bracing for increased demand as the federal government shutdown wears on.&nbsp;The Missouri Department of Social Services&nbsp;<a href="https://mydss.mo.gov/federal-shutdown-impacts" target="_blank">announced</a>&nbsp;Monday that it won’t be able to issue November SNAP benefits until further notice after receiving official communication from USDA that&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/17/repub/snap-benefits-on-pace-to-run-out-in-two-weeks-if-shutdown-persists/">funding will run out</a>.

Gov. Mike Kehoe said Monday that although his team is reviewing options to keep the program running, there is no existing state plan that would do so, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_06c840da-ccda-4aa5-9a95-9fb32f114be4.html" target="_blank">reported</a>.

Meredith Knopp, president and CEO of the St. Louis Area Foodbank, said any disruption the food bank experienced due to canceled deliveries was “minimal,” and that the tornado that hit St. Louis in May and the ongoing shutdown have affected the food bank more.

“Right now it’s just about educating and informing people where they can go for help, how they can get assistance temporarily until the government reopens,” Knopp said of the shutdown.

Knopp said purchases made by the USDA later in the year made up for canceled TEFAP deliveries. On Aug. 1, the USDA announced the purchase of<a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/08/01/secretary-rollins-announces-local-food-purchases-communities-need" target="_blank">&nbsp;$230 million</a>&nbsp;in fish, dried cranberries, beans and apples for food banks nationwide.

The canceled shipments make up a relatively small portion of what Missouri food banks distribute each year. Missouri’s food banks dispensed 132.2 million pounds of food in 2023, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://mohungeratlas.org/report.php?c=29000&amp;m=FoodInsHHSt%7CFoodInsHungHHSt%7CPdFoodDist%7CPdFoodDistCap%7CPdFoodDistCapC&amp;y=2025" target="_blank">Missouri Hunger Atlas</a>, which is published by the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security at the University of Missouri.

But Jordan Browning, director of communications for Ozarks Food Harvest in Springfield, said food banks still have to fill in gaps.

The first canceled shipments – over 100 orders of 2% milk headed for 30 states – were scheduled to arrive on May 14, records show. That day, Ozarks Food Harvest and the St. Louis Area Food Bank in Bridgeton were each slated to receive orders of more than 2,000 gallons of milk, according to the records.

At first, Browning said, he&nbsp;thought the deliveries might just be delayed, which had happened in the past.

The next missed delivery date in Missouri was May 31, when all six of the state’s regional food banks were scheduled to receive shipments, according to the records.&nbsp;

“They kept getting delayed further and further,” Browning said. “Pretty much until it finally came to an actual cancellation notice, we weren’t aware that we would have to make up a shortfall.”

Much of the food was high quality protein, the items that are priciest and hardest for food banks to source, food bank administrators said.

The Southeast Missouri Food Bank received all the orders staff were told to expect, according to Heather Collier, donor relations and communications manager at the Sikeston-based food bank, though some were delayed.

But Collier said shipments can be canceled before the state notifies regional food banks that they should expect a delivery.&nbsp;

“Canceled loads, if they’re fully canceled, they’re usually happening before we’re even notified,” Collier said.

Collier said that although the food bank weathered the March cuts relatively easily, she expects coming changes to SNAP to increase the number of Missourians who don’t qualify for federal assistance but struggle to reliably access nutritious food.

The budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress in July cuts SNAP by $187 billion through 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The bill also expands SNAP work requirements to include adults ages 55-64 and parents of children over 14.&nbsp;

In the Southeast Missouri Food Bank’s service area, according to Collier, 46.5% of people who are food insecure already do not qualify for SNAP.

“You’re meeting the definition of food insecurity, but not meeting the qualifications to receive assistance,” Collier said. “Food banks are going to have to make that up.”

Haun said community support will enable food banks to continue helping Missourians in need.

“It’s so important for people to connect with their local food bank now,” Haun said. “They need not just funds to allow them to address these gaps, but other types of donations and volunteering.”

Through the shutdown and any future challenges, Knopp was confident the food bank would continue to help.

“It might not always be smooth sailing,” Knopp said. “It might be clunky. But we’re here, and we will be here to support anyone who needs us.”

This story was updated at 3:50 p.m. to include an announcement from the Department of Social Services about SNAP benefits.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761041719869.png" alt="Delivery trucks wait in the parking lot of the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri in Columbia, which serves 32 counties, on Oct. 17. (Steph Quinn | Missouri Independent)" />
 <figcaption>Delivery trucks wait in the parking lot of the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri in Columbia, which serves 32 counties, on Oct. 17. (Steph Quinn | Missouri Independent)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Though food banks statewide said they have mostly made up shortfalls from canceled deliveries, some worry that coming changes to SNAP will leave Missourians hungrier</h2>By:<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/squinn/">Steph Quinn</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>Missouri has lost nearly 1.6 million pounds of food aid since May due to sudden cuts to a federal program that buys food from U.S. farmers and sends it to food banks across the country.That’s 146,400 pounds of cheese, 433,070 pounds of canned and frozen chicken, 1.2 million eggs, 38,250 gallons of milk, 120,000 pounds of pulled pork, 115,200 pounds of sliced turkey breast, 180,000 pounds of dried plums and 114,000 pounds of frozen pork chops.The Trump administration in&nbsp;<a href="https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/following-the-usda-food-and-farm-funding/" target="_blank">late March</a>&nbsp;slashed $500 million that had already been allocated to food aid nationwide through The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP. That canceled 124 scheduled deliveries to Missouri food banks, according to data obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture by&nbsp;<a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-food-cuts/" target="_blank">ProPublica</a>&nbsp;and shared with The Independent.Food banks across the state said they have largely made up shortfalls from the March cuts by increasing their food purchases. But some food bank leaders worry that hunger in Missouri will increase with the implementation of changes signed into law this summer to federal assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.“Food banks are the safety net to the safety net,” said Leigh Anne Haun, executive director of Feeding Missouri, a coalition of the state’s six regional food banks. “When you talk about programs like SNAP…any time those start to get strained, or there’s holes in those nets, the food banks are the safety net underneath.”They are also bracing for increased demand as the federal government shutdown wears on.&nbsp;The Missouri Department of Social Services&nbsp;<a href="https://mydss.mo.gov/federal-shutdown-impacts" target="_blank">announced</a>&nbsp;Monday that it won’t be able to issue November SNAP benefits until further notice after receiving official communication from USDA that&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/17/repub/snap-benefits-on-pace-to-run-out-in-two-weeks-if-shutdown-persists/">funding will run out</a>.Gov. Mike Kehoe said Monday that although his team is reviewing options to keep the program running, there is no existing state plan that would do so, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_06c840da-ccda-4aa5-9a95-9fb32f114be4.html" target="_blank">reported</a>.Meredith Knopp, president and CEO of the St. Louis Area Foodbank, said any disruption the food bank experienced due to canceled deliveries was “minimal,” and that the tornado that hit St. Louis in May and the ongoing shutdown have affected the food bank more.“Right now it’s just about educating and informing people where they can go for help, how they can get assistance temporarily until the government reopens,” Knopp said of the shutdown.Knopp said purchases made by the USDA later in the year made up for canceled TEFAP deliveries. On Aug. 1, the USDA announced the purchase of<a href="https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/08/01/secretary-rollins-announces-local-food-purchases-communities-need" target="_blank">&nbsp;$230 million</a>&nbsp;in fish, dried cranberries, beans and apples for food banks nationwide.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1761041689487.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>The canceled shipments make up a relatively small portion of what Missouri food banks distribute each year. Missouri’s food banks dispensed 132.2 million pounds of food in 2023, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://mohungeratlas.org/report.php?c=29000&amp;m=FoodInsHHSt%7CFoodInsHungHHSt%7CPdFoodDist%7CPdFoodDistCap%7CPdFoodDistCapC&amp;y=2025" target="_blank">Missouri Hunger Atlas</a>, which is published by the Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security at the University of Missouri.But Jordan Browning, director of communications for Ozarks Food Harvest in Springfield, said food banks still have to fill in gaps.The first canceled shipments – over 100 orders of 2% milk headed for 30 states – were scheduled to arrive on May 14, records show. That day, Ozarks Food Harvest and the St. Louis Area Food Bank in Bridgeton were each slated to receive orders of more than 2,000 gallons of milk, according to the records.At first, Browning said, he&nbsp;thought the deliveries might just be delayed, which had happened in the past.The next missed delivery date in Missouri was May 31, when all six of the state’s regional food banks were scheduled to receive shipments, according to the records.&nbsp;“They kept getting delayed further and further,” Browning said. “Pretty much until it finally came to an actual cancellation notice, we weren’t aware that we would have to make up a shortfall.”Much of the food was high quality protein, the items that are priciest and hardest for food banks to source, food bank administrators said.The Southeast Missouri Food Bank received all the orders staff were told to expect, according to Heather Collier, donor relations and communications manager at the Sikeston-based food bank, though some were delayed.But Collier said shipments can be canceled before the state notifies regional food banks that they should expect a delivery.&nbsp;“Canceled loads, if they’re fully canceled, they’re usually happening before we’re even notified,” Collier said.Collier said that although the food bank weathered the March cuts relatively easily, she expects coming changes to SNAP to increase the number of Missourians who don’t qualify for federal assistance but struggle to reliably access nutritious food.The budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress in July cuts SNAP by $187 billion through 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The bill also expands SNAP work requirements to include adults ages 55-64 and parents of children over 14.&nbsp;In the Southeast Missouri Food Bank’s service area, according to Collier, 46.5% of people who are food insecure already do not qualify for SNAP.“You’re meeting the definition of food insecurity, but not meeting the qualifications to receive assistance,” Collier said. “Food banks are going to have to make that up.”Haun said community support will enable food banks to continue helping Missourians in need.“It’s so important for people to connect with their local food bank now,” Haun said. “They need not just funds to allow them to address these gaps, but other types of donations and volunteering.”Through the shutdown and any future challenges, Knopp was confident the food bank would continue to help.“It might not always be smooth sailing,” Knopp said. “It might be clunky. But we’re here, and we will be here to support anyone who needs us.”This story was updated at 3:50 p.m. to include an announcement from the Department of Social Services about SNAP benefits.

Missouri lost 1.6 million pounds of federal food aid to Trump cuts this year

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins says the summary of a proposed initiative petition seeking to repeal stadium subsidies was a ‘first bite at the apple’ that can later be refined in the courts. Critics say that’s just a strategy to bog down and derail citizen-led campaigns

By:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jason-hancock/">Jason Hancock</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is warning voters that a repeal of Missouri’s $1.5 billion stadium subsidy could mean the Chiefs pack their bags and move to Kansas.&nbsp;

And what about the Royals, the other team state lawmakers were hoping to convince to stay in Missouri when they created the subsidy program?&nbsp; Crickets.&nbsp;

A ballot summary prepared by Hoskins’ office for a pair of proposed initiative petitions seeking to repeal the stadium funding law declares that voter approval could “likely cause the Kansas City Chiefs to move their stadium from Missouri to Kansas.”

There is no mention of the Royals, an omission that sparked a flurry of questions — and criticism.&nbsp;

Does Hoskins have some reason to believe the Royals have already decided to leave the state or have no intention of using the stadium tax incentives?&nbsp;

Or, as critics allege, is Hoskins hoping to sink the measure by making predictions about the future plans of the Chiefs, who&nbsp;— unlike the Royals — have a statewide fanbase, three recent championships, and a star player in Patrick Mahomes who is the face of the sport?

The Secretary of State’s Office insists it has neither inside knowledge of the Royals’ intentions nor a desire to bias voters against the proposed repeal. In a statement, the office said it “does not have access to or knowledge of the private business decisions of any professional sports franchise,” and that the ballot summary must reflect the “clearest, most immediate potential consequence” of the law.

Besides, Hoskins’ office said, the current version of the summary is just the “first bite at the apple.” A recently approved state law gives the secretary of state up to three times to get the ballot language right — if proponents are upset enough about the first version to take the issue to court.&nbsp;

Brad Ketcher, a lawyer working with the group behind the ballot measure to repeal the subsidy, believes that’s the point. Writing an unfair ballot summary forces backers of initiative petitions to invest the time and money into legal challenges that could otherwise be dedicated to gathering signatures or engaging with voters.&nbsp;

“Hoskins is all but admitting,” Ketcher said, “that he drafted flawed language with an eye toward slowing the measure.”

Over the last month, Hoskins has found himself at the center of the political storm, facing criticism — and lawsuits — over his office’s role in the initiative petition and referendum process.&nbsp;

Hoskins has used his authority to&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/16/lawsuit-threat-of-criminal-charges-part-of-gop-effort-to-block-vote-on-missouri-map/">pre-emptively reject 100,000 signatures for a proposed referendum</a>&nbsp;on Missouri’s new congressional map. He’s also come under fire for crafting what critics call “<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/lawsuits-challenge-deceptive-summaries-for-missouri-public-education-ballot-measures/">deceptive and prejudicial</a>” summary statements for two public‐education related constitutional amendments.&nbsp;

He was tasked with rewriting the ballot language for a proposal to reinstate Missouri’s abortion ban after a Cole County judge determined the initial wording by lawmakers failed to alert voters that the amendment would ban most abortions.&nbsp;

But his initial draft was rejected when the judge determined it was “insufficient and unfair.” Hoskins got the judge’s&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/07/missouri-abortion-ban-amendment-ballot-language-2026/">sign off on the summary</a>&nbsp;on his next attempt.&nbsp;

Sean Nicholson, a longtime progressive activist in Missouri, filed a lawsuit earlier this year asking a judge to strike down a new law that says any ballot language deemed insufficient or unfair by a court must be sent back to the secretary of state up to three times for revision. If, after three attempts, the courts still find the language unacceptable, a judge is then allowed to rewrite it themselves.

Nicholson said Hoskins’ behavior is exactly why the law is so dangerous and should be overturned.

“Denny Hoskins is required to write fair and impartial language,” Nicholson said. “But instead, he is reinforcing all the concerns people had when the legislature passed the law, that a bad-faith politician could use it to waste the people’s time and resources.”&nbsp;

As for the Chiefs and Royals, their future — in Missouri or Kansas — remains unresolved.&nbsp;

“We have heard nothing to indicate that the Royals have decided to leave the State of Missouri,” said Gabby Picard, a spokeswoman for Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, whose office plays no role in the intuitive petition process, when asked about the team’s omission from the ballot summary.

“In fact,” Picard said, “Gov. Kehoe and his team remain in frequent communication with the Royals and the Chiefs to ensure that both teams stay in Missouri — where they belong.”

The teams have expressed interest in leaving Missouri when the lease on their current stadiums in Jackson County expire in 2030. Kansas lawmakers put a deal on the table that would use state incentives to pay for up to 70% of the costs of new stadiums.

The Missouri plan would allocate state taxes collected from economic activity at Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums to bond payments for renovations at Arrowhead and a new stadium for the Royals in Jackson or Clay counties. The cost is estimated at close to $1.5 billion over 30 years.

A pair of Republican lawmakers<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-ag-general-assembly-seek-to-dismiss-lawsuit-against-stadium-funding-bill/">&nbsp;filed a lawsuit hoping to get the entire package thrown out</a>, arguing it violates the constitution by including multiple provisions and aid to private interests.&nbsp;

The initiative petitions aiming to repeal the stadium subsidy seek to direct any money saved toward preventing cuts to Medicaid&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_59f065f3-1e50-44a6-81ac-630fb5acd698.html" target="_blank">that could result from legislation passed this summer by Congress</a>.&nbsp;

Hoskins, Ketcher alleges, “has chosen to protect billions for billionaire sports team owners at the expense of everyday Missourians and their health care.”&nbsp;

For his part, Hoskins defended his work — and his team loyalties.&nbsp;

“Secretary Hoskins applauds the Royals on a hard-fought season and, like many Missourians, is cheering on the Chiefs this football season,” his office said in a statement. “Regardless of team colors, the goal remains the same: ensuring Missouri voters have the facts they need to make an informed decision at the ballot box.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/9/1759061969764.png" alt="Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins&nbsp; -courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins&nbsp; -courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Secretary of State Denny Hoskins says the summary of a proposed initiative petition seeking to repeal stadium subsidies was a ‘first bite at the apple’ that can later be refined in the courts. Critics say that’s just a strategy to bog down and derail citizen-led campaigns</h2>By:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jason-hancock/">Jason Hancock</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is warning voters that a repeal of Missouri’s $1.5 billion stadium subsidy could mean the Chiefs pack their bags and move to Kansas.&nbsp;And what about the Royals, the other team state lawmakers were hoping to convince to stay in Missouri when they created the subsidy program?&nbsp; Crickets.&nbsp;A ballot summary prepared by Hoskins’ office for a pair of proposed initiative petitions seeking to repeal the stadium funding law declares that voter approval could “likely cause the Kansas City Chiefs to move their stadium from Missouri to Kansas.”There is no mention of the Royals, an omission that sparked a flurry of questions — and criticism.&nbsp;Does Hoskins have some reason to believe the Royals have already decided to leave the state or have no intention of using the stadium tax incentives?&nbsp;Or, as critics allege, is Hoskins hoping to sink the measure by making predictions about the future plans of the Chiefs, who&nbsp;— unlike the Royals — have a statewide fanbase, three recent championships, and a star player in Patrick Mahomes who is the face of the sport?The Secretary of State’s Office insists it has neither inside knowledge of the Royals’ intentions nor a desire to bias voters against the proposed repeal. In a statement, the office said it “does not have access to or knowledge of the private business decisions of any professional sports franchise,” and that the ballot summary must reflect the “clearest, most immediate potential consequence” of the law.Besides, Hoskins’ office said, the current version of the summary is just the “first bite at the apple.” A recently approved state law gives the secretary of state up to three times to get the ballot language right — if proponents are upset enough about the first version to take the issue to court.&nbsp;Brad Ketcher, a lawyer working with the group behind the ballot measure to repeal the subsidy, believes that’s the point. Writing an unfair ballot summary forces backers of initiative petitions to invest the time and money into legal challenges that could otherwise be dedicated to gathering signatures or engaging with voters.&nbsp;“Hoskins is all but admitting,” Ketcher said, “that he drafted flawed language with an eye toward slowing the measure.”Over the last month, Hoskins has found himself at the center of the political storm, facing criticism — and lawsuits — over his office’s role in the initiative petition and referendum process.&nbsp;Hoskins has used his authority to&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/16/lawsuit-threat-of-criminal-charges-part-of-gop-effort-to-block-vote-on-missouri-map/">pre-emptively reject 100,000 signatures for a proposed referendum</a>&nbsp;on Missouri’s new congressional map. He’s also come under fire for crafting what critics call “<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/lawsuits-challenge-deceptive-summaries-for-missouri-public-education-ballot-measures/">deceptive and prejudicial</a>” summary statements for two public‐education related constitutional amendments.&nbsp;He was tasked with rewriting the ballot language for a proposal to reinstate Missouri’s abortion ban after a Cole County judge determined the initial wording by lawmakers failed to alert voters that the amendment would ban most abortions.&nbsp;But his initial draft was rejected when the judge determined it was “insufficient and unfair.” Hoskins got the judge’s&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2025/10/07/missouri-abortion-ban-amendment-ballot-language-2026/">sign off on the summary</a>&nbsp;on his next attempt.&nbsp;Sean Nicholson, a longtime progressive activist in Missouri, filed a lawsuit earlier this year asking a judge to strike down a new law that says any ballot language deemed insufficient or unfair by a court must be sent back to the secretary of state up to three times for revision. If, after three attempts, the courts still find the language unacceptable, a judge is then allowed to rewrite it themselves.Nicholson said Hoskins’ behavior is exactly why the law is so dangerous and should be overturned.“Denny Hoskins is required to write fair and impartial language,” Nicholson said. “But instead, he is reinforcing all the concerns people had when the legislature passed the law, that a bad-faith politician could use it to waste the people’s time and resources.”&nbsp;As for the Chiefs and Royals, their future — in Missouri or Kansas — remains unresolved.&nbsp;“We have heard nothing to indicate that the Royals have decided to leave the State of Missouri,” said Gabby Picard, a spokeswoman for Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, whose office plays no role in the intuitive petition process, when asked about the team’s omission from the ballot summary.“In fact,” Picard said, “Gov. Kehoe and his team remain in frequent communication with the Royals and the Chiefs to ensure that both teams stay in Missouri — where they belong.”The teams have expressed interest in leaving Missouri when the lease on their current stadiums in Jackson County expire in 2030. Kansas lawmakers put a deal on the table that would use state incentives to pay for up to 70% of the costs of new stadiums.The Missouri plan would allocate state taxes collected from economic activity at Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums to bond payments for renovations at Arrowhead and a new stadium for the Royals in Jackson or Clay counties. The cost is estimated at close to $1.5 billion over 30 years.A pair of Republican lawmakers<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-ag-general-assembly-seek-to-dismiss-lawsuit-against-stadium-funding-bill/">&nbsp;filed a lawsuit hoping to get the entire package thrown out</a>, arguing it violates the constitution by including multiple provisions and aid to private interests.&nbsp;The initiative petitions aiming to repeal the stadium subsidy seek to direct any money saved toward preventing cuts to Medicaid&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_59f065f3-1e50-44a6-81ac-630fb5acd698.html" target="_blank">that could result from legislation passed this summer by Congress</a>.&nbsp;Hoskins, Ketcher alleges, “has chosen to protect billions for billionaire sports team owners at the expense of everyday Missourians and their health care.”&nbsp;For his part, Hoskins defended his work — and his team loyalties.&nbsp;“Secretary Hoskins applauds the Royals on a hard-fought season and, like many Missourians, is cheering on the Chiefs this football season,” his office said in a statement. “Regardless of team colors, the goal remains the same: ensuring Missouri voters have the facts they need to make an informed decision at the ballot box.”

Chiefs in, Royals out: Missouri secretary of state once again catches flak over ballot summary

DAVIESS COUNTY —One person was injured in an accident just befoe 9a.m. Sunday in Daviess County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe driven by a 68-year-old Gallatin man was westbound on Grand Street just east of Green Street in Gallatin.

The SUV's windshield was fogged over obstruction the driver's view.&nbsp; The vehicle traveled into a hole in the ground that was marked by orange fencing and cones.

Daviess County ambulance transported the driver to Cameron Regional Medical Center. He was properly restrained, at the time ofthe accident, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

DAVIESS COUNTY —One person was injured in an accident just befoe 9a.m. Sunday in Daviess County.The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe driven by a 68-year-old Gallatin man was westbound on Grand Street just east of Green Street in Gallatin.The SUV's windshield was fogged over obstruction the driver's view.&nbsp; The vehicle traveled into a hole in the ground that was marked by orange fencing and cones.Daviess County ambulance transported the driver to Cameron Regional Medical Center. He was properly restrained, at the time ofthe accident, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

Mo. man hospitalized after SUV traveled into a hole marked by cones

CALDWELL COUNTY —One person died in an accident just before 1:30p.m. Saturday in Caldwell County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Ford F150 driven by a 58-year-old Smithville man was westbound on U.S. 36 just west of Center Road four miles east of Cameron. The pickup rear-ended&nbsp;a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 driven by a 50-year-old Hamilton man.

&nbsp;After impact the F150 continued west in the driving lane and struck the drivers side rear wheel of&nbsp;a 2009 Case IH combine driven by a 53-year-old Hamilton man.&nbsp; The pickup then began to slide and roll. The driver was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene. 

Caldwell County ambulance transported an 8-year-old male passenger in the pickup to Children's Mercy.&nbsp; There were no other injuries reported. The occupants of the Ford were not wearing seat belts, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

CALDWELL COUNTY —One person died in an accident just before 1:30p.m. Saturday in Caldwell County.The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Ford F150 driven by a 58-year-old Smithville man was westbound on U.S. 36 just west of Center Road four miles east of Cameron. The pickup rear-ended&nbsp;a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 driven by a 50-year-old Hamilton man.&nbsp;After impact the F150 continued west in the driving lane and struck the drivers side rear wheel of&nbsp;a 2009 Case IH combine driven by a 53-year-old Hamilton man.&nbsp; The pickup then began to slide and roll. The driver was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene. Caldwell County ambulance transported an 8-year-old male passenger in the pickup to Children's Mercy.&nbsp; There were no other injuries reported. The occupants of the Ford were not wearing seat belts, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

Mo. man dead, 8-year-old injured after crash involving trucks, combine

DEKALB COUNTY —Three juveniles were injured in an accident just after 7:30a.m. Saturday in DeKalb County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Freightliner Straight Truck driven by a 42-year-old Wichita man was southbound on MO 33 one mile north of Osborn. The driver attempted to travel through the intersection at U.S. 36 and continue southbound on Route M. The driver failed to yield to an eastbound 2018 School bus driven by a 64-year-old Burlington Junction woman.

The bus struck the rear passenger side of the truck. Three girls on the bus were transported for treatment of minor injuries.

A private vehicle transported a 15-year-old Maryville girl to Mosaic in St. Joseph and a 16-year-old Maryville girl to Cameron Regional Medical Center. DeKalb-Clinton Ambulance transported a 17-year-old Maryville girl to Mosaic in St. Joseph. The drivers were both properly restrained and not injured according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

DEKALB COUNTY —Three juveniles were injured in an accident just after 7:30a.m. Saturday in DeKalb County.The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Freightliner Straight Truck driven by a 42-year-old Wichita man was southbound on MO 33 one mile north of Osborn. The driver attempted to travel through the intersection at U.S. 36 and continue southbound on Route M. The driver failed to yield to an eastbound 2018 School bus driven by a 64-year-old Burlington Junction woman.The bus struck the rear passenger side of the truck. Three girls on the bus were transported for treatment of minor injuries.A private vehicle transported a 15-year-old Maryville girl to Mosaic in St. Joseph and a 16-year-old Maryville girl to Cameron Regional Medical Center. DeKalb-Clinton Ambulance transported a 17-year-old Maryville girl to Mosaic in St. Joseph. The drivers were both properly restrained and not injured according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

3 Mo. girls injured after truck, school bus accident

ANDREW COUNTY —One person was injured in an accident just after 5a.m. Saturday in Andrew County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2023 Hyundia Elantra driven by a 23-year-old St. Joseph man was eastbound on U.S. 59 at Business Loop 29 in Country Cub. The driver failed to stop at the stop sign. The car crossed both north and southbound lanes of Business Loop 29, traveled off the east side of the road, struck an embankment and several trees. The car came to rest on a fence

Andrew County EMS transported the driver to Mosaic Life Care. He was properly restrained, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

ANDREW COUNTY —One person was injured in an accident just after 5a.m. Saturday in Andrew County.The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2023 Hyundia Elantra driven by a 23-year-old St. Joseph man was eastbound on U.S. 59 at Business Loop 29 in Country Cub. The driver failed to stop at the stop sign. The car crossed both north and southbound lanes of Business Loop 29, traveled off the east side of the road, struck an embankment and several trees. The car came to rest on a fenceAndrew County EMS transported the driver to Mosaic Life Care. He was properly restrained, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

St. Joe man injured after car strikes trees and came to rest on a fence

HOLT COUNTY —Two people were injured in an accident just before 4p.m. Friday in Holt County.&nbsp;

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2016 Toyota Avalon driven by a 29-year-old Pittsburg, Kansas, woman was turning south onto U.S. 59 from Route B five miles south of Oregon. The driver failed to yield to a 2010 Chevy Avalanche driven by a 61-year-old Oregon man. The Chevy struck the front passenger side of the Toyota

Atchison Holt ambulance transported both drivers to Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph. They were both properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

HOLT COUNTY —Two people were injured in an accident just before 4p.m. Friday in Holt County.&nbsp;The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2016 Toyota Avalon driven by a 29-year-old Pittsburg, Kansas, woman was turning south onto U.S. 59 from Route B five miles south of Oregon. The driver failed to yield to a 2010 Chevy Avalanche driven by a 61-year-old Oregon man. The Chevy struck the front passenger side of the ToyotaAtchison Holt ambulance transported both drivers to Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph. They were both properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

2 hospitalized in St. Joe after pickup, car crash

CALDWELL COUNTY—One person was injured in an accident just before 6a.m. Friday in Caldwell County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2018 Jeep Wrangler driven by a 51-year-old Braymer woman was northbound on Route A five miles north of Braymer.&nbsp;The driver attempted to maneuver around a deer in the road. The Jeep traveled off the east side of the road and struck a barbed wire fence.

Caldwell County EMS transported the driver to Cameron Regional Medical Center. She was properly restrained, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

CALDWELL COUNTY—One person was injured in an accident just before 6a.m. Friday in Caldwell County.The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2018 Jeep Wrangler driven by a 51-year-old Braymer woman was northbound on Route A five miles north of Braymer.&nbsp;The driver attempted to maneuver around a deer in the road. The Jeep traveled off the east side of the road and struck a barbed wire fence.Caldwell County EMS transported the driver to Cameron Regional Medical Center. She was properly restrained, according to the MSHP. The Patrol no longer releases names of accident victims.

Missouri woman injured after Jeep strikes a barbed wire fence

Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map faces a referendum campaign seeking to repeal it. Republican officials are using procedural roadblocks and litigation to protect the new districts

As the campaign to repeal Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map approaches the 106,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the 2026 ballot, Republicans are pulling out all the stops to block it.&nbsp;

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins announced Wednesday that roughly 100,000 signatures gathered so far for the referendum won’t count — and that gathering them before his office approved “constitutes a misdemeanor election offense.”

Later in the day, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed a lawsuit arguing that holding a referendum on the congressional map is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to stop it.&nbsp;

“Missouri politicians continue to try to confuse, intimidate and, frankly, silence us,” Richard Von Glahn of People Not Politicians, the committee behind the referendum campaign, told reporters Thursday.&nbsp;

People Not Politicians is already in court challenging Hoskins’ decision to reject its initial referendum petitions because they were filed in September before the governor signed the redistricting bill. &nbsp;If those petitions aren’t valid, neither are the 100,000 signatures already gathered for the referendum.&nbsp;

Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green set the case for a trial on Nov. 4.&nbsp;

“This office remains committed to transparency, accuracy and protecting Missouri voters’ trust in the democratic process,” Hoskins said Wednesday.&nbsp;

At the heart of the debate is Missouri’s congressional map, which has eight districts with six currently represented by Republicans.&nbsp;

Lawmakers returned to the Capitol last month to gerrymander one of the Democratic seats in a way that would adhere to President Donal Trump’s instructions to create a new GOP district before the 2026 midterms.

The target was the 5th District, based in Kansas City and represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005. It is carved up under the new map with portions attached to the 4th and 6th Districts. Heavily Republican areas stretching along the Missouri River to Boone County were added to the remaining Kansas City portions.

Hours after the map won legislative approval, People Not Politicians filed for a referendum to put it on the ballot. Under the Missouri Constitution, if the group gathers 106,000 signatures before Dec. 11, the map will not go into effect until after a statewide vote.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/10/1760697422004.png" alt="Protesters gather in the Missouri Capitol rotunda Sept. 10 in opposition to a gerrymandered congressional district map (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption>Protesters gather in the Missouri Capitol rotunda Sept. 10 in opposition to a gerrymandered congressional district map (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map faces a referendum campaign seeking to repeal it. Republican officials are using procedural roadblocks and litigation to protect the new districts</h2>By:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jason-hancock/">Jason Hancock</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>As the campaign to repeal Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map approaches the 106,000 signatures needed to put the issue on the 2026 ballot, Republicans are pulling out all the stops to block it.&nbsp;Secretary of State Denny Hoskins announced Wednesday that roughly 100,000 signatures gathered so far for the referendum won’t count — and that gathering them before his office approved “constitutes a misdemeanor election offense.”Later in the day, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed a lawsuit arguing that holding a referendum on the congressional map is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to stop it.&nbsp;“Missouri politicians continue to try to confuse, intimidate and, frankly, silence us,” Richard Von Glahn of People Not Politicians, the committee behind the referendum campaign, told reporters Thursday.&nbsp;People Not Politicians is already in court challenging Hoskins’ decision to reject its initial referendum petitions because they were filed in September before the governor signed the redistricting bill. &nbsp;If those petitions aren’t valid, neither are the 100,000 signatures already gathered for the referendum.&nbsp;Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green set the case for a trial on Nov. 4.&nbsp;“This office remains committed to transparency, accuracy and protecting Missouri voters’ trust in the democratic process,” Hoskins said Wednesday.&nbsp;At the heart of the debate is Missouri’s congressional map, which has eight districts with six currently represented by Republicans.&nbsp;Lawmakers returned to the Capitol last month to gerrymander one of the Democratic seats in a way that would adhere to President Donal Trump’s instructions to create a new GOP district before the 2026 midterms.The target was the 5th District, based in Kansas City and represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver since 2005. It is carved up under the new map with portions attached to the 4th and 6th Districts. Heavily Republican areas stretching along the Missouri River to Boone County were added to the remaining Kansas City portions.Hours after the map won legislative approval, People Not Politicians filed for a referendum to put it on the ballot. Under the Missouri Constitution, if the group gathers 106,000 signatures before Dec. 11, the map will not go into effect until after a statewide vote.&nbsp;The referendum poses a real threat to the new map. Of the 27 times a referendum has been placed on the Missouri ballot, voters have rejected actions by the General Assembly all but twice. That includes 1922, when&nbsp;<a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Proposition_17,_Congressional_Redistricting_Referendum_%281922%29" target="_blank">voters rejected a new congressional map</a>&nbsp;drawn by the legislature.&nbsp;A referendum was last deployed in Missouri seven years ago, when labor unions collected 300,000 signatures in 90 days to put a question on the statewide ballot repealing a GOP-backed right-to-work law.A year later, the secretary of state’s office used procedural maneuvers to derail a referendum campaign that sought to overturn newly-passed restrictions on abortion.&nbsp;That 2019 referendum never got off the ground because of the secretary of state’s actions. But it sparked a 2022 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that determined the laws the secretary of state used to obstruct the citizen-initiated referendum process were unconstitutional.“We’ve been here before,” said Chuck Hatfield, an attorney representing People Not Politicians. “The Secretary of State knows better.”People Not Politicians has raised $2.6 million in six-figure donations since the campaign began last month. According to disclosure reports filed with the state ethics commission, more than $1.2 million of that has gone directly towards signature gathering.&nbsp;Most of the group’s money has come from out-of-state nonprofits who are not obligated to disclose their donors. Last week, Kansas City-based Health Forward Foundation donated $750,000.&nbsp;Hanaway pointed to People Not Politicians out-of-state donors in announcing her federal lawsuit seeking to block the referendum.&nbsp;&nbsp;“Missouri’s redistricting process cannot be dictated by out-of-state special interests,” Hanaway said. “We will not allow dark money groups to silence Missouri voices or hijack the work of the General Assembly.”Hatfield called the actions of Hanaway and Hoskins “outrageous” and a “full on tantrum about the right of the people to overrule these congressional districts, which is a right the people are guaranteed in the constitution.”In particular, he called the accusation that gathering signatures could ever be considered a crime “totally ridiculous.”“This is nothing,” Hatfield said, “but an attempt to intimidate and deny people the right to petition their government.”