JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI (KMOX) - A proposal to raise the bar on changing the Missouri Constitution passed in the House Thursday, heading next to the Senate for consideration. House Resolution 20 would require a two-thirds supermajority by state voters in order to amend the constitution. Right now, it takes 50-percent-plus-one-vote to pass an amendment. The House passed the measure 111 to 46.
Representative Peter Merideth (D-St. Louis) spoke passionately against the resolution, believing it undermines the power of the people.
"It's a dirty exercise of a legislature that the people don't trust; taking away the people's power to exercise authority over us at the ballot," Merideth says.
He also contested an amendment added to raise the bar on the number of signatures needed to get a statewide initiative on the ballot to amend the constitution. It would go from 8-percent of registered voters to 10-percent.
Sponsor Mike Henderson R-Francois County responding, "We just want to make sure they're getting signatures from northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest, and all over the state."
Regarding whether raising the requirement to a super majority is too much, Rep. Dan Shaul R-Jefferson County says, "We're actually insuring the voice of all Missourians are heard. Not just those along the I-70 corridor."
Republicans made the point that urban areas can impose changes in the constitution on rural areas just based on their populations. Likewise, an issue overwhelmingly supported by rural Missourians - but not favored by city dwellers - could see the opposite. This way, they claim, it will take at least some agreement in each part of the state to change the constitution.
H.R. 20 next heads to the State Senate for consideration. However, the next major hurdle to clear will be if it passes through at the Capitol. It would have to be placed on the state ballot in an upcoming general election.
If it makes it that far, it would only need pass by 50-percent plus one more vote for the constitution to become amended. It could conceivably be the last amendment to ever do that in Missouri.
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