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Missouri House committee urged to silo property into separate classes for taxes
MACON — Separate tax rates for the four classes of taxed property would protect homeowners from large tax increases during reassessment, Chariton County Assessor Darrin Gladbach told a special Missouri House interim committee at its final field hearing. If residential, commercial, farm and personal property each had a separate rate, any rate cuts due to […]
Missouri becomes first state to repeal capital gains tax, at an estimated $625M cost
A new Missouri income tax cut exempting profits from the sale of investments officially takes effect Thursday, along with smaller tax changes that will remove sales tax from diapers and feminine hygiene products. All state laws passed in a regular session take effect Aug. 28 unless another date is specified. The capital gains tax cut […]
Rudi ’splains it: Missouri property tax rates and how they are set
Property tax rates for this year must be set by Monday in Missouri’s 2,807 local political subdivisions authorized to impose levies. That starts the annual billing cycle, with each county collector using those rates and the property values determined by the county assessor to generate tax bills mailed in October. By Dec. 31, every tax […]
New Missouri law means state is no longer allowed to seize assets of prison inmates
One of the most-watched bills approved by Missouri lawmakers this year put the state back in control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. The police takeover provisions made the bill one of the most controversial of the session, and sparked a lawsuit, set for trial Nov. 5. But tucked inside, and noticed only by […]
Missouri settles lawsuit over prison isolation policies for people with HIV
For six years, Honesty Jade Bishop was held in solitary confinement in a Missouri prison after she was sexually assaulted by her cellmate. The Department of Corrections deemed that Bishop, a transgender woman who was living with HIV, was sexually active and needed to be isolated. And from 2015 to 2021, she was in administrative […]
Donald Trump says Missouri will revise congressional districts to favor Republicans
Missouri “is IN” for redrawing the state’s congressional districts in a special legislative session, President Donald Trump proclaimed Thursday on his social media platform. With Texas moving quickly toward a mid-decade revision of its congressional map to tilt five districts toward the Republican Party, Missouri would now be expected to follow suit to help the […]
Missouri governor’s parole study group urged to focus on transparency, fairness
Missouri’s 19 prisons hold about 24,000 people. At some point, most will be released. The question for crime victims, people behind bars and the families of both is when. How that question gets answered is at the heart of a working group created by Gov. Mike Kehoe earlier this year to examine Missouri’s parole system […]
Missouri math: How a 23-year sentence adds up to more than 40 years in prison
When Deandre Pointer appeared in front of a Jackson County judge in June 2023, his world was bright. After years of protesting his innocence of murder charges and failing to convince any court, Pointer cut a deal to trade his life without parole sentence for a 23-year term on two counts of second degree murder […]
Black Missouri lawmakers vow to resist Missouri GOP push for new congressional districts
Black leaders in the Missouri legislature said Thursday that they will fight any attempt to redraw the state’s congressional districts, pointing to the courts as the venue where they have greatest hopes to prevail. State Rep. Michael Johnson, a Kansas City Democrat who chairs the Legislative Black Caucus, said any effort to remake maps is […]
Missouri Senate leader says special session is ‘likely’ to redraw congressional map
Momentum is building for a special session of the Missouri Legislature to redraw the state’s eight congressional districts with the aim of gaining a seat for Republicans. Democrats will fight it, but a united Republican majority with more than two-thirds of the seats in both chambers can force it through if they wish. Missouri Senate […]
Missouri legislators file lawsuit claiming stadium funding for Chiefs, Royals is unconstitutional
The bill authorizing state support for professional sports stadiums is unconstitutional because it grants public aid to private interests and combines widely different and unrelated subjects, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by two state lawmakers. State Sen. Mike Moon, a Republican from Ash Grove, and state Rep. Bryant Wolfin, a Republican from Ste. Genevieve, […]
Grand jury indicts top Democrat in St. Louis County government on felony charges
The top elected official in Missouri’s largest county was indicted Wednesday on four criminal charges for allegedly misusing public money to oppose passage of an April ballot measure. The indictment, secured by Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office acting as special prosecutor, accuses St. Louis County Executive Sam Page of spending public funds on a flyer […]