Special Interest Groups Continue Needless Legal Wrangling,
Valuing Cheap Cigarettes over Missouri Kids
Polling Shows That More than 80% of Missourians Want the Chance to Vote on Amendment 3
JEFFERSON CITY (August 19, 2016) – Despite Amendment 3 (the Early Childhood Health and Education Amendment) qualifying for the November ballot after receiving signatures from hundreds of thousands of Missourians, opponents of the measure continue their desperate legal wrangling. A hearing, in which opponents will challenge the Amendment’s right to be on the ballot, is scheduled for this afternoon in Cole County Circuit Court.
Amendment 3 will establish a secure and untouchable source of funding ($300 million per year once the measure is fully phased in by 2020), and place it in a constitutionally protected lockbox that ensures it goes to early childhood education and health programs and cannot be diverted to other causes by Jefferson City politicians. Investing in early childhood education is a proven way to reduce crime, grow the economy, and save taxpayer dollars.
One plaintiff in the case, Jim Boeving, owns Discount Smokes and Beer in Springfield. The other plaintiff, Patty Arrowood, owns Feericks Candy and Tobacco in Joplin. Vendors and manufacturers of cheap cigarettes oppose Amendment 3 because it would create its funding source by raising Missouri’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax. Opponents of the measure have publicly stated that their main rationale for denying funding for early childhood education is because this amendment will “decrease” the cheap cigarette companies’ “profit margin.”
A survey of state voters found that the measure is backed by a roughly 2-1 margin, and 80% of voters, no matter where they stood on the Amendment specifically, oppose any and all legal efforts by cheap cigarette companies to use legal maneuvering to attempt to block November’s vote.
“Missouri voters have spoken, and they are more than ready for the opportunity to vote on Amendment 3,” said Jane Dueker, a spokeswoman for Raise Your Hand for Kids, the proponent of the Amendment. “Hearings like the one today are an unnecessary distraction by opponents who are running out of options. I have every confidence that Amendment 3 will be on the ballot this November, and that it will pass.”
Amendment 3 is supported by a broad coalition of respected groups from all areas of the state, including the Missouri School Boards’ Association, Missouri State NAACP, the Missouri Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators, Associated Industries of Missouri, the Missouri Budget Project, the Missouri Retailers Association, the Missouri PTA, SSM Health Care and many others.
