Missourians are slated to decide next week whether they should create a wealth fund that could pay the state's expenses decades into the future.
Amendment 7 would establish what's known as a sovereign wealth fund. It would take in money from either the General Assembly or bequests from wealthy individuals. And it would authorize the state treasurer to invest in "exchange-traded funds tracking the stock performance of the Standard and Poor's 500, or a comparable successor index to be determined by law."
Rep. Colin Wellenkamp, R-St. Charles, said an investment of $250 million could grow big enough by 2125 to cover most of the state's expenses.
"We have to put guardrails in and set up a structure that protects the state from economic downturns and insulates the state from risk," Wellenkamp said. "Also, we had to put guardrails in there that required that neither the state legislature nor a future treasurer could kind of play the market."
He said there safeguards in Amendment 7 that prevent the General Assembly from taking the money out of the sovereign wealth fund — which makes it an example of long-term fiscal management for the state.
"I thought it was an innovative and new way to pursue true fiscal sustainability for the state over the long term," Wellenkamp said. "And also it is a direct gift to our grandchildren and great grandchildren into the future."
Wellenkamp said that about 20 other states have sovereign wealth funds, including Oklahoma, Alaska and Texas. But those states have large deposits of oil, while Missouri does not.
Still, Wellenkamp said places that don't have significant natural resources reserves like Florida also have sovereign wealth funds. He added that it could be possible for companies that are building hyperscale data centers to set aside some money for Missouri's sovereign wealth fund.
"And something I'm really interested in putting in [data center legislation] is a community investment fund requirement, where if you're going to build a hyperscale data center in Missouri, you have a community investment requirement tied to per computation capacity of that data center where you pay in a small percentage into the State of Missouri for public purposes," Wellenkamp said. "We could take a public portion of that, and there could be a small percentage of that tied to our sovereign wealth fund."
Unlike several other ballot initiatives this election cycle, Amendment 7 doesn't appear to have organized support or opposition. But it does have detractors.
Some Democratic lawmakers voted against putting Amendment 7 on the ballot, mainly because they don't see the wisdom in taking money that could be used for immediate purposes being socked away from decades.
"We need every penny that we possibly can," said Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee's Summit. "From what the bill sponsor even said, this may not come to fruition for over 100 years. And so it's likely that none of us and our children don't even reap any of the benefits of this."
Wellenkamp emphasized that nothing in Amendment 7 forces the legislature to allocate anything for the sovereign wealth fund.
He provided an example of the state getting a massive settlement in which most of the money could be used immediately toward some purpose, while a portion of those funds could be placed in the sovereign wealth fund.
"We've definitely got needs," Wellenkamp said. "Maybe a small portion could go into a sovereign wealth fund, but I wouldn't put the whole thing in there."
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