JEFFERSON CITY — The lobbying group for thousands of Missouri real estate agents is mounting a campaign to block Republicans from making it harder for voters to change the state constitution.
The Missouri Association of Realtors on Thursday contributed $100,000 to a newly formed political action committee dedicated to keeping the state’s ballot initiative laws intact.
The PAC, Missourians for Fair Governance, registered on Aug. 2, listing its treasurer as Jessica Jordan, who is vice president for finance and operations at the Realtors’ association.
In its filing, the PAC says its purpose is “To protect Missourians’ power of the petition for citizen governance.”
By putting a significant chunk of money behind the effort, the Realtors signaled that they are ready to either support a ballot initiative that keeps the status quo or the organization could work to block any bid by Republican lawmakers to make it harder to amend the constitution.
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It marks the latest hurdle facing Republicans following a vote earlier this month in Ohio, in which voters handily dumped a bid by the GOP to raise the threshold for constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60%.
The Ohio vote was viewed as a win for abortion rights supporters, who will need only a simple majority at the ballot box this November to codify the right to an abortion in the state constitution. Missouri abortion rights supporters are trying to get a similar amendment on the ballot in 2024.
That effort is currently being bottled up by a lawsuit filed by two Republican lawmakers who oppose abortion.
In response to the Ohio vote, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, expressed doubt that voters would go along with a change.
“I find it hard to imagine a scenario where the outcome in Missouri would be different than Ohio if we do get it on the ballot,” he told the Post-Dispatch.
During the spring legislative session, Republicans in the House were able to push through a plan to raise the threshold to 60%, despite the stated opposition of groups like the Realtors.
“Most citizens of the state of Missouri aren’t real excited about what you’re trying to do,” Sam Licklider, a lobbyist for the real estate organization, told lawmakers in a hearing in January.
Supporters of making it tougher to amend the constitution have watched as voters have repeatedly enacted measures that were not being taken up by the General Assembly.
Voters, for example, have signed off in recent years on legalizing marijuana, expanding Medicaid health insurance coverage and changing the way legislative districts are drawn.
Key to the Realtors’ opposition is that the organization has previously used the ballot initiative process to enact changes favorable to its members.
In 2010, for example, the organization spent over $4 million to amend the Constitution to prohibit sales taxes on real estate transfers.
In 2016, the group raised $5.6 million to stop the Legislature from extending state sales taxes to services.
Missouri’s Legislature reflects the federal structure in many ways. Video by Beth O’Malley
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