Missouri voters will find four statewide constitutional amendments on their Aug. 4 primary ballot. The first is the most familiar and the least contested: Amendment 1 asks whether to keep an existing one-tenth of one percent state sales and use tax that funds state parks, historic sites, and soil and water conservation.
It is not a new tax, and it does not change the rate. The same levy has been on the books since 1984, and voters have renewed it every decade since. A yes vote continues it for 10 more years; a no vote ends it. The state’s own fiscal summary is blunt on the point: passage neither raises nor lowers taxes.
The money is real. The tax brought in about $140 million in the last fiscal year, and by law the revenue is split down the middle. Half operates and maintains the state park system, which keeps Missouri among a small group of states that charge no park entrance fee. The other half flows to the state’s 114 county soil and water conservation districts, which cover part of the cost when farmers and landowners build erosion controls, grazing systems, and similar projects. The Department of Natural Resources counts more than $772 million raised since 1984 and an estimated 194 million tons of soil kept on Missouri ground.
History favors renewal. Voters first approved the tax narrowly in 1984, then reapproved it by growing margins in 1988, 1996, 2006, and 2016. The last time it appeared, in 2016, it drew roughly 80 percent support and carried all 114 counties. If voters do not renew it in 2026, the tax expires in 2028.
Getting here took an unusual step. The renewal is written into the constitution to return to voters automatically every 10 years; the current language traces to a 2005 Senate resolution that became Section 47(c) of Article IV. What is new is the date. The measure was headed for the November general election until Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a May 22 proclamation moving it, along with Amendments 2, 4, and 5, onto the August primary ballot.
That timing is why a measure that has never lost is, this year, one its supporters are watching closely. Primary turnout runs well below a November general election, and the August electorate tends to be more conservative and more tax-averse. Supporters also worry that the loud, well-funded fight over Amendment 5, a separate proposal to expand sales taxes and phase out the state income tax, could turn voters against anything with the word tax attached.
There is one more source of confusion worth getting right. Missouri has two dedicated conservation sales taxes, and they are not the same. Amendment 1 is the one-tenth-cent parks, soils and water tax. It is separate from the older one-eighth-cent tax that funds the Department of Conservation, the agency responsible for wildlife, fisheries, and forests. That second tax is permanent, is not on any ballot, and is the one behind most of the online complaints about executive pay and the state’s handling of chronic wasting disease in deer. A no vote on Amendment 1 does not touch a dollar of the Department of Conservation’s budget.
Support for Amendment 1 runs broad. The yes campaign, Citizens for State Parks, Soil and Water, is backed by a coalition that crosses the usual political lines: the Missouri Farm Bureau, the Conservation Federation of Missouri, the soybean, corn, and cattlemen’s associations, the Nature Conservancy, and the Missouri Parks Association, among others. Their argument is simple: the tax is not new, the cost at the register is small, and four decades of results show it works.
No organized campaign has formed against it. The case for a no vote, laid out in some voter guides, rests on principle rather than money: that locking $140 million a year into the constitution puts the spending on autopilot, walled off from the annual budget debate, and that a no vote would amount to a modest tax cut that forces parks and conservation to compete for dollars like every other state program.
Over the next several days, this series will walk through each amendment on the Aug. 4 ballot. Next: Amendment 2, on whether every Missouri county must elect its assessor.
ON THE BALLOT
Official ballot title: “Shall Missouri continue for 10 years the one-tenth of one percent sales/use tax that is used for soil and water conservation and for state parks and historic sites, and resubmit this tax to the voters for approval in 10 years? The measure allows continued collection of the existing sales and use tax, which generates revenue of approximately $140 million annually.”
A YES VOTE keeps the existing tax for 10 more years.
A NO VOTE ends the tax.
TAX IMPACT: Neither raises nor lowers taxes; it keeps the current rate in place.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Rate: one-tenth of one percent (0.1 percent)
- Revenue: about $140 million a year
- Split: 50 percent state parks and historic sites; 50 percent soil and water conservation
- In place since: 1984; renewed in 1988, 1996, 2006, and 2016
- 2016 result: about 80 percent, passed in all 114 counties
- Expires: 2028 if not renewed
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