Out-of-state donors give millions to pass Missouri ballot initiatives
From Missouri Digital News: https://mdn.org
MDN Menu

MDN Home

Journalist's Creed

Print

MDN Help

MDN.ORG: Missouri Digital News
MDN Menu

MDN Home

Journalist's Creed

Print

MDN Help

MDN.ORG Mo. Digital News Missouri Digital News MDN.ORG: Mo. Digital News MDN.ORG: Missouri Digital News
Lobbyist Money Help  

Out-of-state donors give millions to pass Missouri ballot initiatives

Date: September 30, 2010
By: Audrey Moon
State Capitol Bureau

JEFFERSON CITY  â014 Millions of dollars are being donated to Missouri ballot issues from out-of-state sources, according to the Missouri Ethics Commission monthly campaign finance report.

Two contributions, both equaling over $1 million, went to "Vote Yes To Stop Double Taxation", an organization advocating for the passage of Amendment 3.

Amendment 3, if passed, would change the Missouri constitution to stop the implementation of a transfer tax on property sales. 

The National Association of Realtors, located in Chicago, donated $1,218,835 on Sept. 3 in support of the ballot initiative. 

"We feel putting an extra tax burden on people who want to buy homes is not the right way to go about funding, especially with what is going on in the economy and housing crisis," said Lucien Salvant, managing director of the National Association of Realtors. 

Salvant said the Missouri Association of Realtors the national association in Chicago for help.  He said that the tax could cause as many as 12,000 people or households to be priced out of the market.

The second donation in support of Amendment 3 came from Missouri Association of Realtors Issues Mobilization political action committee in Columbia, which donated $1,830,147.57.

In total, the committee "Vote Yes to Stop Double Taxation" gained a total of $3,048,982.57 in donations in September.

Like Amendment 3, Proposition B has also gained significant financial support from out-of-state entities.

The proposition, the Missouri Dog Breeding Regulation Initiative, would cap the number of dogs allowed for breeding purposes, require resting periods between breeding, and mandate that breeders have only 50 breeding dogs and feed those animals daily and regularly. 

A committee advocating Proposition B, Missourians for the Protection of Dogs, received over one million dollars in donations from entities statewide and nationally in September. In whole, the organization received 22 donations of over $5,000, totaling $1,140,000.

Of those 22 donations, 17 came from out-of-state contributors. 

Reginald Brack, former chairman and CEO of Time, Inc., and his wife Barbara, donated $10,000 to the initiative during September. Cathy Kangas, founder of PRAI Beauty Group, Inc. and Vice Chairman of Friends for Animals, a worldwide animal protection organization, donated $20,000.

Other major contributions came from Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, which donated $250,000, and the Human Society of the United States in Gaithersburg, Md., which donated $500,000.