Next year, I will retire from active duty after 26 years of service. During the congressionally mandated Transition Assistance Program, counselors direct servicemembers to research how “veteran-friendly” the state they intend to settle in is. My family and I are excited to settle in Missouri, a state that offers great benefits for veterans. However, I was surprised to find that Missouri does not offer a full real property tax exemption for veterans with a 100% service-connected disability rating. Several states offer this exemption, including my current state of residence, Maryland (I am stationed at the Pentagon), a progressive-led tax-and-spend state. In Missouri, legislation has been introduced multiple times to fix this issue, and it goes nowhere. The next regular legislative session is poised to be contentious as lawmakers grapple with the fallout from stadium deals, redistricting, and IP reform. In this partisan-charged environment, it is helpful to rally around common-sense legislation to find some common ground. Providing real property tax relief to our veterans with a 100% service-connected disability rating is that common ground.
What Does Missouri Offer Now?
Under current state law, real property tax exemptions for veterans with 100% service-connected disability ratings are some of the most restrictive in the country. There are two ways Missouri’s 100% service-connected disabled veterans can access property tax relief. First, the Missouri Constitution offers real property tax exemptions to “Any citizen of Missouri who is a former Prisoner of War (POW) as defined by law, and who has a total service-connected disability.” For the non-POW types, 100% disabled veterans can claim a real property tax credit up to $1,100 on their real estate only if their income is $30,000 or less for single filers, $34,000 or less for married filing combined.
These two provisions are so narrow and exclusive that they lock out most veterans. The income restrictions for non-POWs, for example, are certain to eliminate your average veteran household from accessing the real property tax benefit. According to the Congressional Budget Office, veterans with a disability rating of 70% or higher earn an average $38,000 annually, not including their VA disability income. This exceeds the $30,000 limit for single veterans and the $34,000 limit for married couples filing jointly. The constitutional provision for POWs is even more exclusive. As of 2024, the VA estimates there are 22,641 surviving POWs nationwide. Of those, 90% are World War II veterans. The VA estimates there will be no living World War II veterans by 2043. In short, Missouri will soon have a well-intentioned constitutional provision that no one may qualify for.
What’s Been Proposed?
In the 2025 regular session, Sen. Jill Carter (R-Granby) introduced SJR 46. SJR 46 amends the POW provision in the constitution by defining terms and offering the real property tax credit exemption to veterans with a 100% service-connected disability rating and their surviving spouses. Sen. Carter’s Resolution sailed through the Senate in a bipartisan fashion but died in the House. According to the legislation’s home page, similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate since 2018. In the House, an identical companion resolution, HJR 6, was introduced by Army veteran Rep. Dave Griffith (R-Jefferson City). The House has also had similar legislation introduced since 2018.
The constitutional amendment approach is not the only avenue through which real property tax relief can be afforded to Missouri’s 100% service-connected disabled veterans. This relief can be achieved through the means of regular legislation. For example, in the 2025 regular session, Air Force veteran Rep. Mike Jones (R-Kansas City) introduced HB 921, a sweeping piece of legislation that offers total real property tax exemptions for 100% service-connected disabled veterans and exemptions for those with a disability rating less than 100% which would be equal to their rating. For example, a veteran with a service-connected disability rating of 70% would receive a 70% reduction in real property tax. This bill died in the Emerging Issues Committee.
Why Are These Efforts Failing?
Since Missouri offers two avenues for real property tax relief for some veterans with a 100% service-connected disability rating, it is clear the objections to recurring initiatives like SJR 46 are not philosophical. Most people want to support our disabled veterans. Therefore, the reason, it would seem, must be the cost. Any proposed tax relief will have a fiscal impact, especially real property tax relief, the main source of revenue for Missouri’s 114 counties and the City of St. Louis.
The Office of Administration – Budget and Planning’s (B&P) fiscal note on Sen. Carter’s SJR 46 has three main findings. First, if this constitutional amendment passes, it could increase general revenues up to $1,529,397 annually beginning in FY28 as some veterans would no longer claim the existing tax credits available to veterans and seniors. Second, B&P found the amendment could result in an estimated loss of $210,649 in revenue to the Blind Pension Trust Fund. This loss in revenue could be offset by the estimated increase in general revenue if legislators redirect those funds. Finally, and most importantly, B&P estimates a loss of local revenue of $32 million. This is the main sticking point.
Property taxes are the main source of revenue supporting local governments. When taken together, $32 million may sound like a dramatic drop in revenue. However, when averaged out across Missouri’s 114 counties and the City of St. Louis, that loss comes out to $278,000. While decreases in real property tax revenue at the local level will not be evenly distributed as such, it does show that lost revenue can be manageable. While I was working as National Security Advisor to a Member of Congress, the staff was debating the vote recommendation for the PACT Act based on its cost, which was billions. The Member stopped the debate as he walked out replying, “Billions? Pocket change for our veterans.” Certainly, a couple hundred grand can be managed.
What’s Next?
In the last regular session, Sen. Carter’s SJR 46 had the most momentum, easily passing the Senate. In the next regular session, this SJR can be reintroduced and moved through the Senate once more. From there, the House would need to act, as this is where the resolution died last year. Sen. Carter should be meeting with holdouts in the House now to ensure this piece of legislation can pass in 2026. Champions of veterans in the House, like Reps. Griffith and Jones ought to coordinate with Sen. Carter on this effort.
If lawmakers are hesitant to put forth another proposal for a constitutional amendment to the public, a bill solely focusing on real property tax relief for veterans with 100% service-connected disability can be introduced. This is how many states have accomplished this, and when sister-states enact great pieces of legislation, plagiarism is encouraged. Maryland enacted legislation in 2018 providing real property tax exemptions to veterans with 100% service-connected disability and their surviving spouses. Missouri could use it as a model, copy and paste, tweak here it here there, and pass it. The point is this has been done before. Missouri need not reinvent the wheel.
The time to act is now. The 2026 regular session ought to be the time to finally get this commonsense initiative across the goal line. It has been dying on the vine since 2018. 2025 was a close call, but House members did not see it through. As a nation, we are coming out of the longest war in our nation’s history. This is the critical juncture for our wounded warriors. If Missouri wants to be the most veteran-friendly state in the nation, it must start by taking care of our most vulnerable veterans. Those who our country has deemed 100% disabled because of their service. They have certainly earned it.
Air Force Special Warfare Officer and special operations combat veteran with ten overseas deployments. He is stationed at the Pentagon, where he works in Congressional Affairs. Prior to this assignment, he was a Defense Legislative Fellow serving as National Security Adviser to a Member of Congress. The opinions expressed here are the author’s personal views and do not represent the position of any branch of the U.S. Government, the Department of War, or the Department of the Air Force.
