JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Western District Court of Appeals denied separate motions from Secretary of State Jason Kander and Raise Your Hand for Kids for a rehearing or transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court.
Kander’s office filed a motion Monday for a rehearing or transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court after an appeals court ruled Friday that the summary statement of the Raise Your Hand for Kids early childhood education initiative petition was unfair and insufficient.
The petition’s only recourse now before the Wednesday deadline appears to be a direct appeal to the Supreme Court.
In the filing, Kander argued that the court’s rewriting of the summary could invalidate the more than 300,000 signatures gathered for the petition.
“But the proposed constitutional amendment is now in jeopardy because a panel of this Court held that the summary statement, which was circulated and signatures have been collected and submitted, is unfair and insufficient,” the filing said.
Kander also argues that the Friday ruling was wrong because precedent holds “that matters such as interest rates and inflationary adjustments are details not required for the summary statement.”
When Alok Ahuja rewrote the summary in his ruling Friday, he added the words “which shall be increased annually,” to reflect the provision in the initiative that the cigarette tax increase that would fund early childhood education would increase based on inflation.
Kander further argued that inflation should not have been included in the summary because it was not certain.
“The inflation amount is uncertain. Thus, the Secretary of State would be unable to inform a voter in the summary statement as to the specifics beyond the initial tax rate,” the filing says. “In contrast, the first bullet point of the summary statement can project with certainty to 2020 because it is known that the tax will be 60 cents per pack in 2020. That figure does not require projection.”
The office warned that if the matter is not reheard or transferred to the Supreme Court and ruled on by the July 13 deadline, the petition could be dead.
Updated with ruling by Western District Court of Appeals
