Missourians voted to pass a minimum wage increase, improve the political process in several ways, and legalize and regulate the medical use of marijuana on November 6.
Proposition B to raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by the year 2023 passed with about 62 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results (all with 97 percent of precincts reported).
Constitutional Amendment 1 to “clean up Missouri politics” also passed by 62 percent.
And Constitutional Amendment 2 to legalize and regulate medical marijuana passed with about 65 percent, while two competing medical marijuana measures, Amendment 2 and Proposition C were defeated.
Paula Jones, an organizer with SEIU Healthcare union, celebrated Prop B’s win at the watch party held at the Flamingo Bowl. The union represents many nursing home and hospital workers who receive low wages, she said.
“We have a lot of single parents out there, and that’s why we’re here — to bring it on home for our workers,” Jones said.
Prop B will help them when they bargain for wage increases with various medical centers, she said. Richard von Glahn, policy director with Missouri Jobs With Justice, was also at the watch party and campaigned for Proposition B.
“What the results show is having a fair wage for a hard day of work is not a Republican or Democratic issue,” von Glahn said. “That’s why you see, even in a partisan era, people are coming together to help them take care of their families. A full-time worker shouldn’t live in poverty.”
The state’s current minimum wage of $7.85 an hour means that someone working full time earns just $314 a week, or barely more than $16,000 a year, according to Raise Up Missouri. The current minimum wage has less buying power than the minimum wage in the 1960s.
Proposition B will increase the state’s minimum wage from $7.85 to $8.60 an hour in 2019, and then by 85 cents each year until it reaches $12 an hour in 2023.
According to an analysis conducted the Economic Policy Institute, Proposition B will result in an increase of more than $1 billion in consumer buying power in Missouri by the time it is fully phased in, affecting over 670,000 workers. This growth in buying power will occur among the lowest-wage families: those most likely to spend new earnings with small, local businesses.
Cleaning up Missouri politics
Amendment 1 was designed to ban expensive lobbyist gifts, limit big money, require transparent records and end gerrymandering.
“We are thrilled that Republicans, Democrats, and independents came together to clean up Missouri politics,” said Nimrod “Rod” Chapel Jr., president of the NAACP Missouri State Chapter and treasurer of Clean Missouri.
“Thousands of Missourians from across the state came together to put Amendment 1 on the ballot, and then thousands more joined the fight to pass Amendment 1. It’s truly a great day for Missouri.”
Amendment 1 will eliminate all lobbyist gifts in the General Assembly worth more than $5 and lower campaign contribution limits for state legislative candidates. It will require that legislative meetings and records be open to the public. It will stop politicians from becoming lobbyists for two years after leaving the legislature. And it will take redistricting away from the legislature and give it to an independent demographer under review by a citizen commission that must hold public hearings.
Pass the medical marijuana
Amendment 2 – the New Approach Missouri petition organized by a group of political activists and endorsed by the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) – allows doctors to authorize patients to buy, and dispensaries to sell, marijuana for the treatment of a variety of conditions. It does not prohibit the Legislature from legalizing marijuana for other purposes, including recreation.
The amendment calls for a 4-percent tax on retail sales that goes to veterans’ health care (it would also be subject to local and state sales taxes). Also, Amendment 2 permits patients to grow a small amount of their own marijuana, which the other two proposals did not. Two other measures to legalize and regulate medical marijuana – Constitutional Amendment 3 and Proposition C – were defeated.
“Amendment 2 will allow doctors and patients in the state of Missouri to make decisions about their lives when it comes to medical marijuana!” John Payne, campaign manager for the constitutional amendment, told cheering supporters on election night.
He said the failure of the competing measures meant Amendment 2 can take effect with a “clean slate.”
Jack Cardetti, spokesman for New Approach Missouri said, “In becoming the 31st state to allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients with serious and debilitating illnesses, Missourians showed that increasing health care treatment options for patients and supporting veterans are bipartisan Missouri values.”
Provisions will take effect upon official certification of the results.
