Sixty-nine bills from the 2026 legislative session become Missouri law on Friday, Aug. 28. Here is the whole list, bill by bill: what each one does, and where to read it.
Five of them land close to home
Senate Bill 973 rewrites the state’s delinquent-tax, tax-sale, land-bank and foreclosure rules. Macon County Collector Rhonda Anno offered 70 delinquent parcels at the courthouse on Aug. 24, and her office is still the payoff desk. Call 660-385-3214.
House Bill 1940 rewrites how public notices get published. That is the legal-ad rulebook this newspaper follows, and the county, the cities and the school boards along with it.
House Bill 1825 changes county salary commissions. Statutory pay for the listed offices goes up for terms that start after Friday. Nobody’s Friday paycheck changes.
Senate Bill 937 authorizes the state to convey a list of parcels. Kirksville is on it.
Senate Bill 1408 raises the cap on rural interstates and freeways from 70 mph to 75. Macon County has no interstate, and posted limits on U.S. 36 and U.S. 63 stay where they are until MoDOT finishes its review and changes the signs.
Senate bills
33 bills
Sale-leasebacks and mortgage changes
Creates protections for homeowners in a residential sale-leaseback, where someone sells a house and then rents it back. The buyer has to give specific disclosures before the deal is signed. Civil penalty up to $10,000 per violation. The Attorney General and the seller can sue. The same bill writes uniform rules for modifying a mortgage: a qualifying modification is not a new loan and does not, by itself, change who is first in line. Overlapping sale-leaseback language also sits in SB 973 and HB 2636.
School sports appeals board
Creates the Interscholastic Athletic Oversight Commission. The governor appoints it, with Senate consent. It sits in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. It hears appeals after the statewide activities-association process, limited to transfers treated as athletic-purpose moves and to contests and contest procedures. Its decisions are final. It does not run the games day to day.
Pharmacies and drugs
Raises the 12-month over-the-counter meth-precursor limit from 43.2 grams to 61.2 grams. Starting Oct. 1, 2026, manufacturers of those drugs sold in or into Missouri pay a monthly fee to the real-time tracking system. The bill also changes pharmacists’ authority on vaccines, medication therapy, some devices, and certain dispensing. Nonopioid-drug coverage and home blood-pressure-monitoring coverage apply to plans delivered, issued, continued, or renewed on or after Jan. 1, 2027.
Dead statutes and idle boards
Repeals expired, terminated, sunset, and obsolete sections. Each department has to report any board or entity that has not held a public meeting or done public business in the three years ending Aug. 28. The bill also kills or reassigns several listed boards and programs.
Telecom lines and copper
Tightens the criminal law on damaging telecommunications infrastructure. It also creates an offense for unauthorized possession of certain copper, fiber, and other telecom materials.
Missouri Rangers and school protection officers
Creates the Missouri Rangers. POST builds a school-crisis training program, no longer than 160 hours. Arrest power is limited to school property and firearms offenses. A district that uses the program can let Rangers carry a lethal weapon on campus. Each Ranger is a school employee and has qualified immunity.
Website accessibility lawsuits
Creates the Act Against Abusive Website Access Litigation. It sets procedures for lawsuits that claim a website is inaccessible. It applies to cases already pending on Aug. 28, 2026, and it builds in a 90-day correction window keyed to that date.
Tax credits
Extends listed agricultural and energy credits from 2028 to 2033. That package includes wood energy, meat-processing facilities, higher ethanol fuel, biodiesel retail sale and production, urban farms, rolling stock, agricultural production, and specialty crops. For tax years beginning Jan. 1, 2027, a new railroad-infrastructure credit pays 50 percent of qualified railroad and new-rail spending. That credit sunsets Dec. 31, 2032, unless the General Assembly extends it.
Septic systems
Changes sewage-system rules and who may install and inspect them. Certain on-site wastewater professionals have to register and keep training current before Jan. 1, 2027. A percolation-test acceptance rule dies after Dec. 31, 2026.
Who the state can be sued for
Changes when MoDOT and certain private contractors can be held liable for injuries involving government vehicles or dangerous property conditions.
State land transfers
Authorizes the conveyance of listed state parcels. Kirksville in Adair County is on the list, along with Harrisonville, Springfield, Festus, Doniphan, Higginsville, Jefferson City, Richwoods, Jackson County, Nodaway County, Marshall, Bowling Green, Joplin, and Potosi.
Land surveys
The recorder’s user fee on each instrument goes from $4 to $6. The recorder keeps $3 (was $2) in the Recorder’s Fund. $2 (was $1) goes to the Missouri Land Survey Fund. Agriculture sets the fees for copies of survey maps, plats, and records.
DNR programs
Changes several Department of Natural Resources programs, including water and environmental regulation.
State mapping council
Creates the Missouri Geospatial Advisory Council to coordinate mapping and geographic-information data used by state and local governments.
Tax sales and real estate
Rewrites delinquent-tax, tax-sale, land-bank, and foreclosure rules. It repeals the two-year unpaid-tax wait before judicial foreclosure in certain counties. It also writes land-bank ownership and buyer rules, wholesaler-disclosure requirements, and the Missouri Residential Sale Leaseback Protection Act. Macon County’s collector just ran the August tax sale. The collector’s office is still the payoff desk.
Ambulance districts
Changes the administrative and operational rules for ambulance districts.
Foreign law and international bodies
Creates the No Foreign Laws Act. Courts may not apply foreign law that denies rights guaranteed by the U.S. or Missouri constitutions. The official summary also says the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the World Economic Forum have no jurisdiction in Missouri, and no state or local body may enforce their rules. The Hague Conference on Private International Law is the listed exception.
Sex-offender registry
Changes the sex-offender registry and related criminal-record rules, including registration classifications and requirements.
Tourism money
Repeals the old earmark that filled the Division of Tourism Supplemental Revenue Fund from certain tourism-related taxes. The fund is now whatever the General Assembly appropriates, plus gifts, grants, and bequests.
St. Charles school-board elections
Limited to districts where a majority of the district sits in St. Charles County. School-board elections move to the November general election. Terms are four years. A candidate may put a party affiliation on the ballot. New taxes, levy renewals or increases, and bond questions from those boards also go on the November ballot. This is not a statewide school-board rewrite.
Hospitals and Lyme disease
Lets municipal hospitals in third-class cities and hospital-district hospitals invest 50 percent of unused operating money, up from 25 percent, and operate in one another’s service areas. It also creates the Missouri Lyme Disease Eradication Act. The state has to compile an annual Lyme report and work with public four-year campuses on tick-borne surveillance.
Air quality
Changes air-quality regulation and related Department of Natural Resources programs.
Lawsuits aimed at public speech
Creates the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act. Courts can throw out civil suits aimed at speech, press, assembly, petition, or association on a matter of public concern, including communications in a government proceeding. It applies to cases filed or asserted on or after Friday. It is not a journalism-only statute.
Article V convention commissioners
Creates the procedures Missouri would use to pick and govern commissioners if a convention were called under Article V of the U.S. Constitution.
Bentley and Mason’s Law
Lets a court order a person convicted of certain DWI offenses to pay support for the surviving children of a parent or guardian killed in the crash.
Series LLCs
Updates the rules for series limited liability companies, which let separate business units sit under one LLC. Each series has to be individually profiled on the Secretary of State site by Jan. 31, 2027.
75 mph on rural interstates
Raises the maximum speed limit from 70 to 75 on rural interstates and freeways. MoDOT still has to evaluate eligible roads and change signs. It does not, by itself, change posted limits on U.S. 36 or U.S. 63.
Legislative Research
Changes the duties of the Joint Committee on Legislative Research.
State designations
Creates official Missouri designations, including commemorative days, places, and named highways.
Critical materials and drugs
Creates the Missouri Defense and Energy Independence Act. For tax years beginning Jan. 1, 2027, Economic Development can award a 20 or 25 percent credit on qualified project costs of at least $5 million, with a $40 million fiscal-year cap, for plants that make listed critical materials or pharmaceuticals. A separate grant fund is at least $10 million, with grants capped at $500,000. The act sunsets Dec. 31, 2036, unless extended.
Public pensions
Changes rules for several public-employee retirement systems.
Missouri-Ireland trade
Creates the Missouri Ireland Trade Commission to promote trade and investment between Missouri and Ireland.
Buried utilities
Changes the rules for underground facilities and excavation, to cut damage to buried lines.
No Senate bills match that filter.
House bills
36 bills
Who decides burial
Changes who has authority over the remains of a deceased person, including a deceased minor, under the right of sepulcher.
DWI
Changes Missouri’s intoxicated-driving laws, including license and penalty rules.
Highway Patrol purchases
Changes purchasing rules for certain Highway Patrol vehicles, boats, motors, and trailers.
County pay and salary commissions
Takes the prosecuting attorney and the sheriff off noncharter salary commissions. Boone County is the exception. Part-time prosecutors are added where a county uses them. Statutory pay schedules for listed county offices go up for terms that start after Aug. 28, 2026. Fourth-class counties that would otherwise become third class on Jan. 1, 2027, stay fourth class until Dec. 31, 2030. A county can form a cooperative regional prosecutor’s office after a vacancy longer than 60 days.
Disabled plates and occupational therapists
Lets a licensed occupational therapist sign the health statement required for disabled license plates and parking placards.
Adult website age checks
A commercial site whose content is more than 33 percent sexual material harmful to minors has to use a third party to confirm the user is 18. The third party may not keep the identifying information. Bona fide news and public-interest media are excepted. The Attorney General enforces it.
Peace-officer licenses
Changes peace-officer training and licensing, including when the state may deny a license because of earlier discipline.
Joplin hotel tax
Lets Joplin voters raise the city’s transient guest tax for tourism to no more than 6 percent. It is a Joplin bill, not a statewide hotel-tax rewrite.
Elections
Rewrites election procedure. Aug. 12 becomes Election Worker Appreciation Day. After public notice, an election authority can push most electioneering from 25 feet to 50. Notices can go by email and mail. Local candidate filing dates move. The bill also covers lobbyist candidate committees, bond-election contests, absentee and provisional ballots, write-in counting, tabulating-equipment testing, public-fund advocacy limits for special districts, and recurring campaign-contribution rules.
Divorce while pregnant
A court can enter a dissolution or legal separation even when one spouse is pregnant. Pregnancy status cannot stop the judgment.
Legal notices in newspapers
A newspaper only has to have published regularly for one year, not three. The window for a successor paper after a sale or shutdown goes from 30 days to 90. Bond-election notices and other election publications pick up mail and email options. That is the legal-ad rulebook counties, cities, and school boards use.
Entertainment districts
Lets certain cities create entertainment districts under special state rules. The official package names Osage Beach and Chesterfield.
Antisemitism at schools
Creates rules against antisemitic conduct that threatens students or employees at educational institutions.
Cole County state property
Authorizes the transfer of certain state-owned property in Cole County.
State mail
Lets certain departments use first-class mail or electronic delivery instead of certified or registered mail for some notices. It also changes mailing rules for the Ethics Commission and the blind-pension program.
Kids and vulnerable people
Rewrites criminal and protective rules aimed at children and vulnerable people, including grooming, child sexual abuse material, nonconsensual intimate images, trafficking, and online sexual exploitation.
Abuse reports, including pets
Changes mandatory abuse-and-neglect reporting for certain professionals and requires reports of suspected companion-animal abuse.
Hiring people who cannot legally work
Changes the penalties and rules for employers who knowingly hire people not authorized to work in the United States.
Health-care package
A large health-care rewrite. Official short title is health care. The House page is the index for the pieces inside it, including disease reporting, telehealth, licensing, and coverage rules.
Dissolving a water district
Changes how a public water-supply district can be dissolved.
Division of Finance
Changes the laws that govern the Division of Finance and the financial businesses it regulates.
Design-build contracts
Changes the rules for public design-build and progressive design-build construction contracts.
Business filings
Changes the rules for business entities the Secretary of State regulates, including series LLCs.
More state designations
Creates additional official state designations and names certain roads and highways.
Credit unions
Updates credit-union law, including membership shares and electronic board meetings.
Military and Guard
Rewrites several military-affairs rules: veteran-owned business preferences on some government contracts, legal protections for Guard members, the Military Family Relief Fund, health-insurance help for certain Guard members, military leave, and National Guard education benefits.
Multi-employer health plans
Changes financial and reporting rules for certain multiple-employer health plans. Qualifying plans that cover self-administered hormonal contraceptives have to cover up to a one-year supply beginning Jan. 1, 2027.
Mortgage modifications
Creates the Uniform Mortgage Modification Act. Overlapping sale-leaseback and mortgage-modification language also sits in SB 834 and SB 973. Friday does not create three separate codes.
Annexation
Changes the steps a city has to follow to annex land outside its current limits.
Rounding cash to the nickel
On a cash sale only, a vendor may round the total to the nearest nickel. Totals ending in 1, 2, 6, or 7 cents may go down. Totals ending in 3, 4, 8, or 9 cents may go up. Cards stay exact. The tax still goes to Revenue at the full bracket amount. It is optional.
Boat-registration fees
Steers certain watercraft-certification fees into a fund used for water-patrol work.
College and university boards
Changes who can sit on the governing bodies of certain public colleges and universities.
St. Louis convention and sports boards
Changes governance and funding for the Regional Convention and Visitors Commission and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority in St. Louis city and St. Louis County.
License reciprocity
Expands recognition of certain out-of-state professional licenses and puts Missouri into more interstate licensing compacts.
Innovation, public safety, and accountability
Creates the Missouri Innovation, Public Safety, and Accountability Act, a package of economic-development, public-safety, and infrastructure tools.
Community Service Commission
Changes the organization and duties of the Missouri Community Service Commission.
No House bills match that filter.