Tobacco tax, St. Louis police change will be on ballot

Missouri voters will see proposals to tax tobacco and turn over control of St. Louis police to local authorities in November, but they will not vote on payday loan regulation or a minimum wage hike, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced Tuesday. The payday loan initiative fell 270 signatures short of the number needed in the First Congressional District, according to figures released by Carnahan’s office. The minimum wage proposal was 510 signatures short in the Third District and 1,091 short in the First.

The tobacco tax proposal would add 73 cents to a pack of cigarettes, 25 percent to the cost of loose tobacco for cigarettes and 15 percent to all other tobacco products. The money raised, an estimated $283 million to $423 million annually, would be divided among public schools, higher education and smoking eradication programs. The St. Louis measure would repeal a Civil War-era law that puts the police under the control of a Board of Police Commissioners appointed by the governor. The rulings Tuesday on the petitions seem likely to set off a new round of litigation.

The ballot language written by Carnahan and State Auditor Tom Schweich was approved last week by the Missouri Supreme Court for the tobacco tax, payday loan and minimum wage proposals. The payday loan and minimum wage initiatives were pushed as a coordinated campaign for both measures by a coalition of community, faith, labor and student groups, said Sean Soendker Nicholson, director of Progress Missouri. They intend to go to court to force another look at the signatures submitted in St. Louis, where only 49 percent of the signatures submitted were counted, he said.

According to figures Nicholson said came from Carnahan’s office, 76 percent of the signatures submitted in Boone County were found to be valid and 80 percent of the signatures submitted in Jefferson County were valid. Jefferson County is part of the Third Congressional District, where the minimum wage proposal fell 510 signatures short. “We are going to fight in court to make sure the valid signatures are counted,” Nicholson said. The payday loan proposal would cap interest on the short-term loans at 36 percent. The minimum wage proposal would increase the wage to $8.25 an hour and require an annual adjustment based on price levels.