MO Voters: Your Vote on April 7 Could Defund Your Fire Department, School, and Library. Vote NO on SB 3.

If you live in Newton or Jasper County, there is a question on your April 7 ballot that looks like a property tax break. It is not. It is a funding trap — and if it passes, the services your community depends on every single day will pay the price.

The measure is tied to Missouri Senate Bill 3, passed in a special legislative session in June 2025. It sounds simple. It is not. And that is exactly the problem.

Vote NO on April 7.

Does This Affect Your County?

97 of Missouri's 114 counties have SB 3 on their April 7 ballot. 17 counties are exempt including larger urban areas like Jackson County, St. Louis County, St. Louis City, and Greene County.

Not sure if your county is affected? Look it up here before April 7: 👉 mocities.com — The Missouri Municipal League has published the complete official list of all counties and where they fall under SB 3.

You can also read the full text of SB 3 directly at: 👉 senate.mo.gov/25info/pdf-bill/E1/tat/SB3.pdf

If your county is NOT on that exempt list, this measure is on your ballot. Read on, and share this with every Missouri voter you know.

What Is SB 3 — And Where Did It Really Come From?

Missouri Senate Bill 3 requires 97 of Missouri's 114 counties to place a property tax measure on the April 7, 2026 ballot. Both Newton County and Jasper County are among those 97 counties, and both fall into what the bill calls the "five percent" category.

But before we get into what that means for your community, you need to know where this bill actually came from because it was not born out of concern for working families in Newton or Jasper County.

SB 3 was written to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in Missouri.

That is not an exaggeration. The bill was rushed through a special legislative session in June 2025 specifically to prevent those professional sports franchises from relocating to Kansas. To build enough votes to pass the stadium financing provisions, lawmakers added property tax limitations for 97 Missouri counties as a political bargaining chip, not because rural and mid-sized counties needed this legislation, but because legislators needed votes.

The Chiefs left for Kansas anyway. The bill failed at its original purpose. And now 97 Missouri counties are left voting on legislation that was never really about them in the first place.

What Does the Five Percent Cap Actually Mean?

If this measure passes in Newton or Jasper County, annual increases to property tax liability on primary residences would be capped at no more than 5% or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater, using your 2024 tax liability as the permanent baseline.

Importantly, the bill applies to both homeowners and renters who use a property as their primary residence. This is broader than it may appear; it is not just a homeowner issue.

On the surface, a cap sounds like relief. But here is what the bill's supporters won't tell you: costs do not stop rising just because revenue does. When your fire district, your school, or your library faces rising costs for staff, equipment, and materials — and their revenue is capped — the gap has to come from somewhere. That somewhere is your services.

The bill does allow voter-approved tax levies to override the cap if voters explicitly approve them. But that means every time your community needs to maintain service levels, a new vote is required. Without that ongoing voter action, public institutions are locked into a revenue ceiling while their expenses keep climbing. That is a slow financial strangulation dressed up as tax relief.

Why This Is Dangerous for Our Communities

It starves your local services.

Your fire department, your public school, and your library depend almost entirely on property tax revenue to operate. When that revenue is capped, it doesn't just slow their growth. Over time, as costs rise and revenue is frozen, a cap becomes a cut in real terms.

Think about what that means in practice:

• Larger class sizes as school districts lose funding

• Slower emergency response times as fire districts cut staff or equipment

• Reduced library hours and programs or closures entirely

• Crumbling infrastructure as maintenance budgets dry up

This is not speculation. School administrators and fire district officials across Missouri have already sounded the alarm. In nearby Christian County, school officials warned that passage could cost their district over $2 million in the first year alone — and up to $10 million by the 2028-29 school year. Fire departments in surrounding counties have warned of budget cuts between 25 and 40 percent if SB 3 passes.

The ballot language is deliberately confusing.

Community members and local officials alike have criticized SB 3's ballot language as poorly written, ambiguous, and open-ended. Voters are being asked to make a consequential decision about their community's financial future using language that even experts struggle to interpret. One local school administrator read the ballot question aloud and said: "Can you make sense of it? Fact is, it doesn't make sense." When legislation is written this way, the people who drafted it are counting on confusion to get it passed.

It is already being challenged in court.

SB 3 is currently facing a constitutional lawsuit filed in Cole County Circuit Court, alleging multiple violations of the Missouri Constitution. You are being asked to vote on a law that may not even survive legal scrutiny, and your community bears the cost and uncertainty of that fight regardless of the outcome.

It creates impossible budgeting conditions.

The bill locks in your 2024 tax liability as the permanent baseline. How does a school district or fire department plan an annual budget when it cannot accurately forecast its own revenue? It cannot. SB 3 introduces deep financial uncertainty for every public institution that crosses county lines or serves multiple taxing jurisdictions, and that uncertainty directly translates into worse services for the people who need them most.

Who Really Benefits?

The people who drafted this bill, the same legislators who were trying to keep a billionaire-owned NFL franchise in Missouri, are not the people who depend on your local fire station or your children's school.

The property owners who stand to benefit most from a tax cap are those whose property values have risen dramatically — in many cases, wealthier homeowners in growing areas. Meanwhile, the people who rely most heavily on well-funded public schools, fire protection, and library services are working families, renters, and seniors in communities like ours.

The Kansas City Chiefs left for Kansas anyway. The bill failed at its stated purpose. But its consequences for Newton County, Jasper County, and 95 other Missouri counties are very real.

This is not property tax relief. It is a political bargain gone wrong, and your community's schools, fire stations, and libraries are being asked to pay the price.

What You Need to Do

On April 7, vote NO on the County Property Tax Credit question.

Then tell everyone you know. Share this with your neighbors in Newton and Jasper Counties. Talk about it at your dinner table, at church, at work. The people pushing this measure are counting on low turnout and voter confusion.

Don't give them either.

• Find your polling place: https://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/govotemissouri

• Read SB 3 yourself: senate.mo.gov/25info/pdf-bill/E1/tat/SB3.pdf

• Share this post on every platform you use

• Talk to your neighbors, especially renters, seniors on fixed incomes, and anyone who depends on fire and emergency services

The deadline is April 7. The stakes are your community's schools, fire stations, and libraries.

Vote NO.

Information in this editorial draws from the full text of Missouri Senate Bill 3, reporting by KSMU, KY3, and the Webster County Citizen, and community guidance shared by Newton County residents. This is an activist editorial representing the opinion of the author.