With one week remaining in the 2026 Missouri legislative session, lawmakers are setting their sights on property taxes.
House Speaker Jon Patterson, R-Lee's Summit, said there are several Senate-passed bills that the House can choose from that could reduce property taxes.
They include SB 1066, which contains multiple provisions related to property taxes, including requiring the individual assessment of different property tax subclasses. Siloing the subclasses so increases in the assessed value of one type of property, like residential or commercial, do not affect others may allow taxpayers to benefit from lower tax rates.
That Senate bill is in a conference committee, where the two chambers work on a compromise. If they come to an agreement, the House and Senate would need to vote one more time on the bill.
Patterson echoed Senate Republicans' comments from the beginning of the session that property tax change has been a goal.
"That's always a priority for us, especially me, given that I'm from Jackson County, where that's a huge problem," Patterson said.
However, he admitted that criticism from some, including Sen. Joe Nicola, R-Grain Valley, that the legislation does not make huge changes is valid.
"It may be seen as a bit more moderate," Patterson said.
Democrats also see passing property tax legislation as a priority.
"I think that Missourians are screaming at us for property tax reform. It is a bipartisan issue," said House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City.
Aune said the legislation does address some of the burdens of the assessment process but could fall short of saving people money.
"I do worry that we will be really proud of ourselves for passing some level of property tax reform but it's not going to translate into savings for the taxpayer," Aune said.
Republicans have already passed one of their highest priorities: a proposed constitutional amendment that aims to eliminate the state income tax by allowing the legislature to expand sales and use taxes to make up the lost revenue.
Patterson said he also wanted the legislature to also address personal property taxes this session.
"I would like to have seen us pass the bill that said after 12 years or 10 years, or 15 years, that you don't have to pay personal property taxes on it anymore. I would like to have seen us get something like that done, but it's just not going to happen this year," he said.
Patterson said passing the income tax resolution took a lot of time and could have paused other tax bills this year.
"I think taxation, the income tax, took up a lot of the energy, so maybe that was part of it. But I think we could still get some property tax legislation done," Patterson said.
Aune agrees that the income tax resolution work dominated the session and may have prevented the legislature from doing more on property taxes.
"I think that the income tax cut/sales tax hike proposal is what took all the air out of the room this year, and I think that there was simply no appetite to try to do it all at once," Aune said.
Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton, pushed back against the idea that the property tax bill doesn't go far enough and said there are enough uncertainties surrounding the income tax resolution.
"We have basically a three-legged stool. Here we have income tax, property tax, sales tax. The governor has decided that he wants to throw two of those (legs) up in the air. So we don't know what that looks like," Beck said.
Bills on vehicle inspections and speed limits could clear
The House has passed several bills this year related to vehicles.
They include legislation to remove the requirement for vehicle inspections and extend how long some car registration tags would be in effect.
While those House bills have yet to go through the Senate, there is still a path for them to pass.
The House added several amendments to SB 1408 that originally raised the maximum speed on rural highways to 75 mph, which is also now in a conference committee.
Patterson is hoping the car inspection part of the bill remains in the final version.
"I would really like to see that done, because I think it would help citizens just not have that burden of getting a car inspected when I think people can kind of take care of that themselves, and I'm not sure that it really does anything in terms of preventing problems," Patterson said.
Beck said that provision is a bad idea.
"I understand that it's a problem. But I see some cars down the road that you wonder, like, should I even be on the road? And it's scary, and that's the safety of everybody around us," Beck said.
Education legislation a possibility
One of Gov. Mike Kehoe's priorities that has not passed so far is legislation establishing a grading system to evaluate schools.
The House in March passed a bill that makes education officials issue A-F grades on public and charter schools, as well as school districts.
That legislation has not passed the Senate, but it could be part of a larger education bill.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, said that he would like to pass a bill on education and that if the Senate were to do anything on education, the A-F grading legislation would be the "primary vehicle."
Patterson said the chambers have been negotiating on that, saying it could be done by the end of the week,
"I'd like to see that for Missouri schools, so that people can know, 'Hey, my school is performing very well, or it's performing not as well as I thought it was,'" Patterson said.
Beck said if there is a wide-reaching education bill this year, he wants it to contain a policy related to the Missouri treasurer's control of the state's private school voucher program.
That could include transparency and accountability measures.
Beck has repeatedly spoken against Treasurer Vivek Malek's handling of the program and cited reporting from the Missouri Independent that found the treasurer's office posted MOScholars student data on its website for almost a year.
Other possibilities
One bill likely to pass this week would grant the same rights to "a child born alive during or after an abortion or attempted abortion" as any other person.
Fetal viability, or the point when a fetus would be able to survive outside the womb, is generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy. According to KFF health research, abortions at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy are uncommon and represent 1% of all abortions in the country.
The Senate passed SB 999 out of the chamber last week. It went through several changes, including stripping out language that made someone civilly liable if they performed, induced or attempted to induce an abortion. That would have included medication abortions.
The bill contains language added by Senate Democrats that includes modifications to the Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review Board.
The legislation requires the board to have one member from each congressional district along with a demographically diverse membership.
Additionally, the bill changes some laws around stalking, including adding the offense of cyberharassment.
Some Senate Republicans voted against the bill, saying they could not support it with the Democrats' addition.
A similar bill was the first item House Republicans passed this session. Patterson said he thinks that bill will pass this week.
Despite the differences in the Senate bill, Aune said she is still a hard no on the legislation. She also believes it is performative.
"I don't think that it really does much, and so I think it's just a message to the base," Aune said.
Another bill that could pass this week is a redo of a law that the Missouri Supreme Court threw out earlier this year.
Lawmakers last year passed a bill that gave the secretary of state greater authority to write summary statements for proposed ballot initiatives. It also limits how much a court can intervene.
The Missouri Supreme Court threw that law out in January, citing an unrelated portion of the law giving the attorney general the ability to appeal preliminary injunctions against state laws or constitutional provisions.
The new version of the bill that the House passed is not an exact copy of last year's bill.
Under the new bill, appellate courts and the state Supreme Court would not be able to rewrite ballot language.
Luetkemeyer said he would like to find a path to re-enact those provisions.
The 2026 legislative session ends at 6 p.m. Friday.
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