Missouri voters reject funding sheriff and prosecutor pensions through court fees

Missouri voters rejected an amendment allowing for court fees to fund sheriff and prosecutor retirement benefits.

Amendment 6 failed by a margin roughly 61%-39% in final, unofficial tallies from the Missouri Secretary of State’s office.

The issue was placed before voters by the legislature, which sought to reverse the impact of a 2021 Missouri Supreme Court ruling that found the fees unconstitutional.

The Sheriffs’ Retirement Fund predicts that it will be depleted in about nine years, said Melissa Lorts, executive director of Missouri Sheriffs’ Retirement System.

The amendment proposed changing the Missouri Constitution to allow the legislature to fund benefits for the state’s 114 elected county sheriffs or their surviving spouses by collecting a $3 fee per case where a guilty verdict or plea is reached.

Retirement benefits for prosecutors were also to be included, through a $4 fee.

The legislature first put the fees in place in 1983.

But a challenge originating from two Kansas City traffic tickets forced the collections to stop.

Two men pleaded guilty to speeding tickets in 2017, paying $223.50 in fines and fees to Kansas City’s municipal court.

Later, they were plaintiffs in a class action suit challenging use of the fees for the sheriffs’ pensions. The men said they hadn’t known about the extra fees when they paid the court and argued that the fees amounted to “unjust enrichment” in violation of the state’s constitution.

The state’s highest court ruled by citing a 1986 ruling barring court fees that benefit executive officials that are not “reasonably related to the expense of the expense of the administration of justice.”

The case stopped collection of the fees and cost the sheriffs’ retirement system about $9 million, Lorts said.

This article first appeared on Beacon: Missouri.