Missouri rejects income tax overhaul

Missouri voters rejected Amendment 5 in the August 4 primary election, blocking a proposed constitutional change that would have required lawmakers to phase out the state individual income tax as state revenues grew. The measure also would have authorized the expansion of sales and use taxes, according to the official ballot title published by the Missouri Secretary of State. Unofficial statewide returns posted by the secretary of state's election site showed the proposal losing by a wide margin. Gov. Mike Kehoe had backed the measure as part of a broader push by Republican officials to cut taxes in the state. ### What exactly did Amendment 5 ask voters to approve? The Missouri Secretary of State's ballot title said Amendment 5 would have amended the constitution to require a legislative phase-out of the individual state income tax based on revenue growth and to authorize the expansion of sales and use taxes. The same ballot language said the measure also would have curtailed a state sales-tax exemption for food and exempted capital gains from state income taxation. (sos.mo.gov) Ballotpedia said Missouri's state income tax before the vote was a graduated system with rates ranging from 2% to 4.7%, while the statewide sales-tax rate was 4.225% as of August 2026. That baseline mattered because the amendment proposed shifting how the state could raise revenue rather than simply cutting one tax in isolation. ### How decisive was the result? (sos.mo.gov) The Missouri secretary of state's election reporting site listed Amendment 5 among the August 4 statewide ballot measures and posted unofficial results through August 5. KCUR reported the measure failed with 83% of ballots cast recorded as "no" votes when the race was called at 8:15 p.m. on election night. Fox 2 and other Missouri outlets reported the Associated Press called the race shortly after polls closed, and the result left the state's income-tax structure unchanged. (ballotpedia.org) The defeat came in the same election in which voters also rejected Amendment 4, a separate proposal to change initiative-petition rules. ### Why did critics focus on sales taxes? The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said after the vote that Amendment 5 would have given lawmakers "a blank check" to raise or expand sales taxes in support of large income-tax cuts. (enr.sos.mo.gov) The group said that kind of shift would have moved more of the tax load onto working families because lower-income households typically spend a larger share of their income on taxable purchases. (fox2now.com) KCUR reported that, with the amendment's failure, lawmakers are now unable to expand sales and use taxes in order to eliminate the state income tax through the constitutional mechanism laid out in Amendment 5. Springfield-area and Kansas City coverage described the proposal in similar terms, as a plan to replace income-tax revenue with broader consumption taxes. ### Who was behind the measure? (itep.org) Gov. Mike Kehoe and Republican lawmakers made Amendment 5 a priority in 2026, according to reporting from Missouri outlets and the secretary of state's earlier June 2 statement after a court ruling kept the proposal on the ballot. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins said at the time that the decision preserved voters' chance to decide whether Missouri should move toward eliminating the income tax. (kcur.org) St. Louis-area reporting after the election said Kehoe planned to keep working on tax cuts despite the loss. That means the amendment's defeat closed one route to income-tax elimination, but not the broader political debate over Missouri tax policy. ### What happens next? The August 4 vote means Missouri's constitution will not be changed to require an income-tax phaseout or to authorize the sales-tax expansion contemplated in Amendment 5. (sos.mo.gov) Any future effort to eliminate or further reduce the income tax would have to come through a different legislative proposal or another statewide ballot measure. The Missouri Secretary of State's election reporting page was still carrying unofficial August 4 results as of August 5, and the ballot-measures page continues to host the full text and official title of Amendment 5. (stltoday.com) Those records will be the starting point for any renewed push by Kehoe, lawmakers or tax-policy groups in the next legislative cycle. (enr.sos.mo.gov) (sos.mo.gov)