Missouri lawmakers, you have a lot of work ahead in 2023. Put the public’s needs first

More than 10% of Missouri’s elementary public school children now attend classes four days a week, not five. It may take years to fully understand the impact of that policy choice by dozens of school districts in the state.

But it takes about five minutes to understand a principle reason for the four-day week: Missouri can’t find enough teachers.

Why? Because it doesn’t pay them enough. “The state’s minimum starting salary is set by law at $25,000,” a special teacher retention task force said this summer, “and thousands of educators were receiving less than $35,000 in annual pay during the 2020-21 school year. … In fact, since the 2009-10 school year, the average annual teacher salary overall has decreased by 6.3%.”

As a result, the task force found, 8% of the state’s teaching positions are unfilled — a shortage of more than 5,000 teachers.

It’s hard enough finding teachers in an environment where education decisions are questioned publicly, and often. Finding teachers who want to work in rural areas is equally tough. Pay them less than other states, and you have a recipe for calamity.

Teacher pay, and quality public education, must be at the top of the Missouri General Assembly’s 2023 agenda.

Pay educators and let them teach

But it isn’t just salary and work conditions. Lawmakers must demonstrate a respect for the teaching profession, and the difficult work of educating children.

That means ending divisive arguments over curricula. Parents must play a role in the education of their children, of course, but teachers can’t be asked to abandon discussions of history and social studies in order to placate a few parents whose view of the past may be skewed.

Missouri legislators must buckle down in 2023 to the real issues: Pay teachers what they’re worth, and then let them teach.

Be realistic about tax reduction

Missouri legislators will wrestle with dozens of bills in 2023 aimed at lowering the state’s tax burden. Proposals include elimination of taxes on real property, eliminating the corporate income tax, and reductions in state income tax rates.

Reduction or elimination of taxes on personal property, such as cars, is also on the table.

We urge real caution here. The state has a $6 billion surplus, driven largely by federal payments. That money won’t last forever. Dramatic reductions in state revenue could cause difficult problems in future years.

At the same time, some modest reductions in the tax burden may deserve examination. Sales taxes are particularly onerous and might warrant reduction — as long as school spending and other important functions are held harmless from the tax cuts.

Allow smart gambling on sports

Missouri remains one of just a handful of states without legalized sports gambling. We support sports gambling in the state, although we think the proposed tax rate of 10% is too low.

We also think sports gambling should be considered apart from so-called video lottery terminals or VLTs, which are found at some truck stops and veterans halls. VLTs are important, but the policy considerations are different from sports gambling — including oversight and the tax rate from the machines.

Regardless, 2023 should be the year Missourians can legally bet on sporting events.

Caution on downtown KC Royals stadium

This may be the year the Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs ask state lawmakers for additional funds for stadium needs — the Royals downtown, and the Chiefs at their current home, or somewhere else.

The political environment for major state spending is complicated. Missouri has lots of money, but lawmakers are understandably skeptical of major spending on stadiums — particularly after the NFL’s Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles, despite state subsidies for their Missouri stadium.

Missouri contributes $3 million annually for the upkeep at the Truman Sports Complex. In 2006, it provided $50 million in sellable tax credits for the renovations to Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums.

Finding additional funds for a downtown baseball stadium, or major improvements to Arrowhead, will be difficult — and should be. We remain open to major changes in our stadium assets, including location, but taxpayers must be protected too.

Initiative petitions, KCPD control

Missouri legislators should not seek to increase the standards for initiative petitions in the state, particularly on amendments to the state’s constitution.

Voters have used the initiative tool to enact Medicaid expansion, enable gambling, protect labor laws and legalize medical and recreational marijuana. They may use it again to consider embedding abortion protections in the Missouri Constitution.

It is their right to do so. Legislators should not try to short-circuit the voters’ voices by making it harder to get on the ballot (a change that, let’s be clear, would also have to go on the ballot) or raising the threshold for approval.

We also ask legislators to please keep their hands off the Kansas City Police Department. Their involvement to date has led to vacancies and high murder rates (and their reluctance to allow any local oversight of gun laws has added to the problem.) Their requirement that Kansas City spend 25% of its revenue on police was a slap in the face of everyone who lives here.

Enough is enough.

We know that 2024 politics will soon become the background for the legislative session, as lawmakers line up for statewide jobs, including the governor’s office. We urge lawmakers to spend at least some time on the public’s welfare before moving on to their own.