There is a relatively new non profit organization called The Blind and Low Vision Community of Missouri. This is a membership group of 104 members statewide.
Jeff Creech is President of the Blind and Low Vision Community of Missouri, who recently lost his sight. The organization advocates for the blind community in Jefferson City. There's a committee designated to making daily phone calls and sending emails trying to improve everything in the state to make it equal for blind people to live an independent life, just like the sighted. Things like credit card/ATM machines, making one machine that is the same at all stores.
Creech is also partnered with a couple of companies to hire the blind. They also work with the Lighthouse. Breaking through in Jefferson City is challenging. Currently, Missouri imposes a state property tax for the purpose of funding the Blind Pension Fund.
However, Republican Missouri Representative Tim Taylor was proposing a constitutional amendment that removes this tax and requires the General Assembly to provide an annual appropriation for the purpose of funding the Blind Pension Fund.
This appropriated amount each year must be at least the same amount the General Assembly appropriated to fund the Blind Pension Fund during the 2026-2027 fiscal year. While Taylor has withdrawn his bill, there are two others which will still threaten the blind pension fund.
Creech says if you are legally blind and meet all the criteria the state provides a monthly stipend to help with bills and transportation, because transportation is the biggest hurdle for the blind community. This bill does away with the constitutional guarantee, does away with personal property tax and if it passes, Creech says blind Missourians are no longer guaranteed their blind pension. It will go into a general allocation fund and if the legislature determines they need the money somewhere else, there is no constitutional guarantee to stop that.
Creech tells KMOX, they are fighting hard to stop legislation from passing that will tamper with the blind pension fund. Creech says he had to have blood work done at a kiosk and on the wall a sign read, if you're sight impaired press these two buttons for the kiosk to talk. His partner fortunately has sight, but the glaring question is how would someone blind see that sign?
Another big concern is voting. All polls have a voting machine for the blind, but 9 times out of 10, the machines are not operational. Creech says blind people must rely on a sighted person to mark their ballot and submit it.
KMOX also spoke to Denny Huff, who is the Blind Pension liaison for the Missouri Council for the Blind. He is in Jefferson City and has a meeting with one of Governor Mike Kehoe's aids On Tuesday. The last time money was taken from Missouri's Blind Pension Fund was 1957, at that time the amount taken was 1-million dollars.
Huff tells KMOX they are two more bills pending though. HB 3354 would change the levy amount of the blind pension, it was .03% they want to change it two 0.275 % which would lessen the amount of the blind pension recipiency. The other bill 20002, would take money in the blind pension reserve, which is about 82-million dollars, they want to transfer 64-million-dollars out of that into the public school system, which is legally done through the constitutional, but the Missouri Council for the Blind believes that is excessive.
