Macon County voters treated the four constitutional amendments on Tuesday’s ballot as four separate questions, and they answered two of them very differently from the other two.
Unofficial county results:
Amendment 1, renewing the one-tenth-cent state sales tax for parks, historic sites and soil and water conservation: 3,281 yes to 834 no, or 79.73 percent in favor.
Amendment 2, requiring charter counties to elect their assessor: 3,207 yes to 822 no, or 79.60 percent in favor.
Amendment 4, requiring citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to win a majority in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts on top of a statewide majority: 1,437 yes to 2,698 no. It failed here with 65.25 percent voting no.
Amendment 5, phasing out the state individual income tax and allowing lawmakers to broaden and raise sales taxes in its place: 784 yes to 3,368 no. It failed here with 81.12 percent voting no, the most lopsided result on the county’s ballot.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday night that Missouri voters statewide approved Amendments 1 and 2 and rejected Amendments 4 and 5. Macon County landed on the same side of all four.
The margins are worth sitting with. Amendment 5 was the priority of Gov. Mike Kehoe and supporters framed it as a way to make Missouri competitive and lower the cost of living. Opponents argued that replacing the income tax would require taxing far more goods and services and would fall hardest on lower- and fixed-income households. In Macon County, better than four voters in five said no.
Amendment 4 was pitched by supporters as protection against out-of-state money rewriting the state constitution through the initiative petition process, and attacked by opponents as an unequal standard, since the higher bar would apply only to citizen-led amendments and not to amendments the legislature refers. Macon County rejected it roughly two to one.
Ballot measures are voted by every ballot type, so all 4,197 county ballots were eligible. Participation varied slightly by question, from 4,029 votes cast on Amendment 2 to 4,152 on Amendment 5.
La Plata road district
The ballot asked whether the La Plata Special Road District should be dissolved. Voters inside the district said yes, 283 to 114, or 71.28 percent. The question appeared on 407 ballots; 397 voters weighed in on it.
All results are unofficial pending the county canvass.