What you will actually see on the ballot
This is the official ballot title, certified by the Missouri Secretary of State on July 2, 2026, word for word:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to establish a permanent public endowment fund to support state government instead of taxing Missouri residents, prohibit the General Assembly from appropriating or diverting the fund, and eliminate state-imposed taxes once the fund generates sufficient revenue to replace them?
State and local governmental entities estimate no costs or savings.
The second paragraph is the certified fiscal note summary and appears on the ballot with the question.
What it does
Amendment 7 comes from the legislature as Senate Joint Resolution 95 — it is a legislatively referred amendment, not a citizen initiative. Its official name is the Show-Me Prosperity Fund. It's on the ballot Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
Here's the plain version, as I read it. The state would set up a permanent public endowment fund and take donations into it. The fund would sit there and grow. Once it grew big enough, the earnings off it would be used to reduce and eventually do away with state taxes, and the General Assembly would be barred from appropriating or diverting the fund itself.
What I think
Two things bother me.
The first is oversight. As I read it, there are no restrictions on this fund and no oversight of it. Nobody has told us who is allowed to donate, or what happens if a very small number of very wealthy people put in most of the money. And then you wonder what influence there will be in this state. Somebody who funds the state's tax system has bought something. I don't know what, and neither does anybody else, and that's my point.
The second is simpler. The income tax is what pays for schools. It's what pays for the state's share of health care. You cannot get rid of the money and keep the things the money buys. In a district like ours, the things the money buys are the schools our children go to and the emergency room our parents drive to.
I'd rather fix what we have than gamble it.
How to read the ballot language
Ballot language is written to sound agreeable. That's not a conspiracy, it's just how these things get drafted. Here's how I read one.
- Find what gets created, and what gets taken away. Most measures do both. The second half is the quieter half.
- Ask who decides. If a measure sets up a fund, look for who appoints, who audits, and who can put money in.
- Ask what pays for schools and hospitals afterward. If the answer is "the fund's earnings, eventually," that's a promise, not a plan.
- Read the whole thing yourself, not the mailer. The Secretary of State publishes the full text.
I said the same in the summer. In August, Missourians were asked to approve Amendment 4, which would have made it harder for citizens to pass their own ballot initiatives while leaving the legislature's own measures under the current rules, and Amendment 5, which would have phased out the income tax and put sales taxes on goods and services instead. I urged people in these three counties to defeat both, and voters defeated both.
Amendment 7 is the same argument coming back in a different suit.
The other measures on the ballot
Other measures share the November ballot. This page covers the one I'm asked about most, and the one I've spoken about on the record. For the rest, the Secretary of State publishes the certified language and I'd rather you read it there than have me summarize it for you.
What I’ll do
- Vote no on Amendment 7, and ask my neighbors to do the same.
I'll say it in every church hall and every kitchen I'm invited into between now and November 3rd.
- Protect general revenue for schools and rural hospitals.
The income tax is the money. I'll oppose plans that trade away the state's ability to fund a school district or a rural emergency room for a promise about investment earnings.
- Insist on oversight before a dollar moves.
A fund like this would need donation limits, disclosure of who gave, and an independent audit. None of that is in front of us.
- Defend the citizen initiative.
People in Missouri have the right to put a question on their own ballot. I opposed Amendment 4 for that reason and I'd oppose the next version of it too.
- Be straight with people about ballot measures.
I'll tell you what I think a measure does, where I got it, and where I'm not certain. You can decide from there.
Help me get this done
A yard sign, ten dollars, or one conversation with a neighbor all move this race in a district of 38,000 people.