Stem cell initiative, minimum wage pass; voters nix tobacco tax

Nevada Daily Mail

Missouri's minimum wage will go up to $6.50 per hour, as Proposition B gleaned landslide approval from voters on Tuesday.

Amendment 2, the Stem Cell Initiative, seems to have won narrow approval in late election returns. An expensive, state-wide battle was waged on the issue, with passionate pleas about both sides of the issue. Like the race for the U.S. Senate, in early returns it looked as though the issue might narrowly fail, but the tables turned as later returns came in. Although the still unofficial statewide victory was narrow, with 50.7 percent in favor of the initiative and 49.3 percent voting no, with about 98 percent of precincts reporting, Vernon County voters rejected the Stem Cell Initative, with 55.7 percent against the measure.

The urban vote likely tipped the scales. In St. Louis County, the voters approved the measure by a huge margin -- 225,962 yes votes, to 170,539 no votes. In the heavily populated Jackson County, wherein lies Kansas City, the margin was smaller but still heavily weighted in favor of it -- 71,543 to 56,469.

Amendment 3, the tobacco tax, was defeated by a margin of 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent, with Vernon Countians also against it by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent.

Amendment 6, tax exemption for veterans' organizations, passed with a 61 percent majority, and Amendment 7, relating to pensions for elected officials, passed overwhelmingly with more than 84 percent of the vote. The Associated Press said that the amendment makes it easier to raise the salaries of judges, legislators and other elected state officials. That amendment mentioned a state salary commission only at the end of its ballot language, instead emphasizing another portion of the proposal that would prohibit officials convicted of a felony while in office, impeached or removed for misconduct from receiving their state pensions. The pension-and-pay-raise amendment got about 84 percent support, with 98 percent of the statewide precincts reporting, and 83 percent of the vote in Vernon County.