Missourians voted in favor of paid sick leave benefits for workers last year. But they'll lose access to it Aug. 28.
In May, the Republican-dominated Missouri General Assembly rolled back the sick leave provision and undercut the minimum wage provisions of Proposition A. And they also took steps to ban abortion again after the passage of Amendment 3 last November.
The moves amount to an unfair power grab, says Benjamin Singer, the CEO of Show-Me Integrity.
Singer is a co-founder of Respect Missouri Voters, a bipartisan and volunteer-run coalition aiming to protect citizen-led ballot measures from being overturned. The group wants to put a measure on the November 2026 ballot that would require a bipartisan supermajority — 75 or 80% of lawmakers — to overturn a law passed by initiative petition.
Bob Johnson, a former Republican state senator from Lee's Summit, says protecting the initiative petition process shouldn't be a partisan issue.
He was in the Missouri legislature in the 1980s when Democrats, then the majority, tried to change the citizen petition process — something Republicans now want to do. It was ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. John Ashcroft.
"(Ashcroft's) got a great, great quote in his veto statement. 'It is through the initiative process that those who have no influence with the elective representatives may take their cause directly to the people,'" Johnson told KCUR's Up To Date.
"This is why we have to protect the our democracy, frankly, in terms of protecting our citizen initiative abilities — for citizens, everyday citizens, to participate in creating laws that impact the way we're governed," Johnson continued.
- Benjamin Singer, CEO of Show-Me Integrity and co-founder of Respect Missouri Voters
- Pam Whiting, volunteer, Respect Missouri Voters
- Bob Johnson, former Missouri state senator (R, Lee's Summit)
