Realtors express opposition to Amendment 4

The Greater Springfield Board of Realtors is among organizations leading opposition to Amendment 4, a Missouri legislature-referred initiative that will appear on the Aug. 4 election ballot.

If it passes, Amendment 4 will require voter approval of citizen-initiated constitutional amendments through passage in all eight of the state’s Congressional districts, rather than requiring passage by a majority of voters. The measure also adds language prohibiting foreign nationals and adversaries from spending to support or oppose ballot measures, and it adds language regarding penalties for ballot initiative signature petition fraud, according to Ballotpedia.

GSBOR hosted a media conference July 17 at its headquarters. Also participating were members of Missourians for Fair Governance, the Missouri Realtors campaign committee opposing Amendment 4, and Project Majority Rule MO.

A panel outlining opposition featured Brent Sager of Branson, president-elect of Missouri Realtors, with Zack Dunn of Savannah, representing Protect Majority Rule MO and the Missouri-Kansas Laborers District Council; Joan Gentry of the League of Women Voters – Springfield; and Scott Charton of Missourians for Fair Governance.

Charton said the opposition to Amendment 4 goes across the political spectrum.

Dunn agreed, saying the issue is bigger than politics as usual.

“When people who don’t agree on much else can agree on this, that tells you something: That this fight is bigger than politics as usual,” he said.

Sager said a lot of people don’t realize what the initiative petition process is, but he sees it as the cornerstone of democracy, allowing a majority of people to enact legislation.

“Amendment 4 wipes that out,” he said. “It says that no longer do the majority of people rule. … When was the last time that you know of that urban areas and rural areas voted the same? It almost never happens.”

Sager added that the legislature does not put the same restraints on itself, with the measure allowing a simple majority for passage of its own ballot measures.

“Now, why would they put those restraints on the people but not themselves?” he said. “I think it’s because they don’t want the people bringing things to put on the ballot.”

Sager said Realtors have used the petition process successfully in the past, with a 2010 ballot measure opposing taxes on selling and buying homes in the state and a 2016 initiative banning sales tax on services. The latter measure, which passed with 57% of the vote, would not have passed if Amendment 4 had been in effect at the time.

Dunn said Missouri is one of 18 states in the nation with the right to put a measure on the ballot and before a vote of the people, but with Amendment 4, one Congressional district – as few as 5% of voters – could veto what the rest of the state supports.

“Amendment 4 is designed to close the door,” he said. “If politicians and special interests can bottle up any statewide majority by controlling just one district, they don’t need to beat us at the ballot box anymore. They just need to rig the rules so our votes don’t count the same as theirs. This is a power grab, plain and simple.”

Gentry, representing the nonpartisan League of Women Voters as a member of both its southwest Missouri board and its Missouri board, said Amendment 4 impacts the principle of one person, one vote, in direct democracy.

“Voting is a powerful tool, and Amendment 4 will weaken that power,” she said.

She added that she is old enough to have had to wait until she was 21 before she could vote; 18-year-olds gained the right to vote in 1974. Additionally, Gentry said, her grandmother could remember when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified to allow women to vote.

She said in 1908, Missourians approved Amendment 3, making Missouri one of seven states allowing statewide citizen-initiated ballot measures. That preceded the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment.

“Voting is the most basic part of our democracy, and my vote carries as much weight as anyone else’s vote,” she said.

Amendment 4 would do away with one person, one vote, she said.

“Amendment 4 takes away the ability we, the people of Missouri, can directly impact our Missouri Constitution,” she said.