This week we continue our series looking at priority issues for the 2025 Missouri legislative session. Pre-filing bills continues and now 1257 bills have been filed by Missouri State Senators and …
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This week we continue our series looking at priority issues for the 2025 Missouri legislative session. Pre-filing bills continues and now 1257 bills have been filed by Missouri State Senators and Representatives.
Some of the proposed state laws would place restrictions or mandates on local governments in Missouri.
Local government is the most accountable. Local government officials such as your city council or county commissioners know the needs of the local area best.
However, the trend for decades now has been to shift power and taxation to state and federal where it is the least efficient.
Dekalb County Western Commissioner Kyle White responded to what he would like to see from the 2025 Missouri legislative session: “Local government is where the people of our county can quickly seek remedy or help. I would encourage Jeff City to return local control they have seized.” White also said “In our state, one size does not fit all, the divide of rural and city is widening and we need Jeff City to respect the rural voters”
The theme of “Missouri legislators, stay in your lane” was evident in this year’s governor race. One of the unsuccessful candidates ran on a platform that would end personal property taxes. While I personally support ending personal property taxes, it is a local issue that funds local government. If personal property taxes are ended, the state income remains virtually unchanged. But your local fire, ambulance and sheriff will take a big cut.
Camden County Presiding Commissioner Ike Skelton and Kyle White want our state legislators to finish the work on revising how constitutional changes via Initiative Petition gets passed.
Skelton also wants to see a statewide ban on automated license plate readers. Throughout Missouri, state and local law enforcement are recording every license plate at certain points such as bridges, city limits or highway ramps. Police say this is a tool to make us safer because they sometimes catch stolen vehicles. The cameras create a massive database for ‘big brother’ tracking you. In the 2018 Supreme Court case of Carpenter versus The United States, the Supreme Court held that police needed a search warrant to access an individual’s location log. Yet law enforcement cameras are still recording everywhere. Our American philosophy of freedom includes your freedom to go about your life without harassment or surveillance unless there is probable cause you have committed a crime and then a search warrant is required - meaning a judge needs to be given ample evidence that the surveillance is justified.
Missouri legislators constitutional role is to protect your individual liberty as written in Mo Constitution, Article 1, Section 2:
“That all constitutional government is intended to promote the general welfare of the people; that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry; that all persons are created equal and are entitled to equal rights and opportunity under the law; that to give security to these things is the principal office of government, and that when government does not confer this security, it fails in its chief design.”
The Missouri legislative session starts on January 8, 2025