VOTERS TO DECIDE SPATE OF ISSUES IN NOVEMBER

Besides choosing candidates for a variety of offices, voters Nov. 8 will decide the fate of five constitutional amendments and one proposition.

Two amendments and the proposition were placed on the ballot through the initiative petition process. The other amendments were are on the ballot through legislative action.

Some amendments, such as the so-called Hancock II proposal, which will appear on the ballot as Amendment 7, have been extremely controversial.

And Amendment 6, which would legalize games of chance, including slot machines, on riverboats was on the ballot in April.

Legislators submitted the amendment to voters then, but it was narrowly rejected.

Lawmakers declined to re-submit the measure, so amendment backers used an initiative petition to get the needed signatures to place the amendment on the ballot.

Both Amendments 6 and 7 have been targets of legal action. But at this point both likely will remain on the ballot.

Those amendments will far overshadow any campaign activity for the other three amendments.

Amendment 1 deals with changes in requirements for 1st Class counties to adopt charter forms of government; Amendment 2 requires payments in lieu of taxes by the state to local government entities for new state park land from the state parks sales tax; and Amendment 5 would create a citizens' pay commission to set benefits for judges, state legislators and statewide-elected officials.

While supporters of Hancock II and legalizing slot machines were waging a high-profile effort to get their measures on the ballot, members of a group known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) were quietly pushing a plan to limit campaign contributions.

Proposition A would change Missouri campaign finance disclosure laws without changing the constitution.

It limits campaign contributions to people or committees per election cycle to $100 and $200, depending on the population of the political district, and to $300 for statewide candidates.

It also expands disclosure requirements and limits the amount of funds that can be maintained in campaign accounts between elections.

A certain number of signatures were required from six of the state's nine congressional districts for issues to be placed on the ballot.

Petitions were circulated in the 8th district for Hancock II and gambling, but the campaign finance plan effort wasn't conducted in this district.