Families Over Billionaires statement on Missouri’s rejection of Amendment 5

Missouri voters delivered a clear message this week: they want investments in their communities, not tax giveaways.

By rejecting Amendment 5 by a decisive 83% to 16%, Missouri voters made clear they want investments in public schools and other essential public services over tax handouts. Amendment 5 proposed to eliminate the state’s income tax. Doing so would have created an immediate multi-billion-dollar budget shortfall that threatened funding for public schools by as much as $1.4 billion annually, and other public programs, while also requiring the state to raise it’s sales tax.

The result of this vote reinforces a broader political reality across the country that we have seen in our own research: When voters understand the choice is between investing in their communities or financing another round of tax cuts, they choose their communities.

“This vote defeated a bad amendment decisively,” said Kristen Crowell, Executive Director of Families Over Billionaires. “Missourians made clear they would rather invest in their children’s classrooms than bankroll another tax giveaway that disproportionately benefits the wealthy. Across the country, families are looking for leaders who will strengthen public schools, protect essential services, and build communities where everyone has a fair shot, not politicians who ask them to sacrifice those investments so the rich can pay even less.”

Also see Crowell’s op-ed, “The Affordability Crisis Can’t Be Solved With Another Tax Cut.”

That message broke through because Missouri parents made the stakes impossible to ignore.

Across Missouri, mothers and fathers came together to explain what billions in lost state revenue would mean for neighborhood schools, students with special needs, teachers, and local communities. They organized fellow parents, passed school district resolutions, spoke with local media, and built a grassroots movement that transformed a debate about taxes into a conversation about what Missourians value.

Families Over Billionaires congratulates the parents, educators, and community leaders who helped lead this effort. Their work demonstrates that ordinary people can successfully organize to protect the public institutions their communities depend on.

The defeat of Amendment 5 is more than a Missouri story. It is the latest evidence that voters will reject policies that weaken the schools, health care systems, and public institutions their communities depend on in order to finance more tax cuts. Across the country, Americans are demanding something different: leaders who invest in their communities, strengthen the foundations of economic opportunity, and build an economy that works for everyone, not just rich.