The Missouri legislature goes back into session Wednesday January 7 through Friday May 15, 2026. Pre-filing of bills is underway right now.

So far, 802 Missouri House and 638 senate bills have been pre-filed.

Not all are bad bills but the overwhelming majority have a common theme: New laws, new regulations, new government fees, new taxes, new misdemeanors, new felonies, more bureaucracy. Less freedom. More on these issues next week.

Now, let’s look back at the 2025 regular session legislative priorities and their outcome: 2600 bills were filed for the 2025 session. Sixteen budget bills passed with a total spending of 52.5 billion. Governor Kehoe increased this later but also vetoed some of the line item spending. Twenty-three non budget bills passed — not counting special session bills.

In December 2024, Senator Cindy O’Laughlin, Shelbina, responded with her top issues for 2025 as Public safety, Tax reform, Initiative Petition (IP) reform and Reliable energy generation.

Senator O’Laughlin is the Pro Tem, aka #1 in charge of the Missouri Senate.

Her public safety bill passed but is being challenged in court as an unconstitutional multi subject bill. Story to be continued.

Real tax reform failed in 2025. Governor Kehoe has publicly pledged to make elimination of Missouri’s income tax a top priority for 2026. Stay tuned for details on what other taxes he wants to increase to make up for the loss of revenue from the personal state income tax.

Initiative Petition reform passed in a September special session called by Missouri Governor Kehoe. The IP reform bill (HJR3) constitutional changes require voter approval. It is scheduled for the November 2026 ballot where Missouri registered voters will get to decide.

Senator O’Laughlin’s quest for an Electric Energy Reform bill passed in 2025. It is now under scrutiny in light of all the new data centers being planned throughout Missouri. Data centers draw a huge amount from the electric grid. The question is why are consumers having to prepay for utilities to expand their capacity for commercial industry such as the data centers.

Senator O’Laughlin asked to increase accountability at the Missouri Dept. of Transportation (MoDOT). She correctly cited the disparity of maintenance between rural paved roads, city paved roads and interstate highways. For 2025 her ballot measure bill SJR2, would have moved the leadership structure of MoDOT to be under the Governor. Governor Kehoe said he would not support this move and it died quickly. MoDOT currently operates independent of the rest of our Missouri state government. MoDOT has an accountability problem and never gained back the trust of Missouri citizens after the lies used to pass the 1992 gas taxes and several efforts since then.

In the 2025 budget, our Missouri legislators moved millions of dollars from general revenue to MoDOT earmarked specifically to improve rural roads. In a future article we will look at how that money is being used, such as adding 90 degree concrete curbs on country roads that farm equipment and trucks use where they are wider than the roadbed and cannot avoid hitting the new dangerous curbs when they meet.

Will 2026 be the year that the legislature actually passes some oversight for MoDOT?

There was a lot of PR early in the 2025 session about the state level DOGE committees. The House committee on government downsizing and efficiency was created and promoted by Speaker Jon Patterson. The house committee held hearings and made recommendations — some of which actually made it into the state budget. Speaker Patterson and House Budget Chair Dirk Deaton supported fiscal responsibility in 2025.

Not so much in the Missouri Senate. The Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Lincoln Hough, proposed more spending than the house or the Governor. The Missouri Senate DOGE committee was headed by Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman. She never returned phone calls or emails and has kept the suggestions sent to her DOGE committee under very tight security.

Senator Rusty Black will be the new senate budget chair for 2026. Representative Dirk Deaton will continue to serve as the house budget chair. State tax income is down and the surplus of federal Covid money is running out. The budget battles will be interesting this 2026 session as lawmakers have to find ways to cut state government or raise taxes while the Governor wants to eliminate the income tax.

Next week we will look at more state level issues and bills prefiled for the Missouri 2026 legislative session.