Who's paying for Amendment 5?

By Jason Hancock | Editor-in-Chief

Good morning, and welcome to The Weekender.

If you’ve been watching Missouri politics long enough, you know the script.

A PAC with a clean, optimistic name. A nonprofit with the same clean, optimistic name. A Delaware incorporation. A private mailbox in St. Louis listed as the principal place of business.

And then the part that matters most: a seven-figure contribution with no public answer to the question of who supplied the money in the first place.

That is where things stand with Missouri Promise Inc., the nonprofit that gave $1.9 million to Missouri Promise PAC, the committee supporting Amendment 5 on the August ballot.

Amendment 5 would give lawmakers authority to phase out Missouri’s state income tax and replace that revenue by expanding sales taxes. Supporters frame it as a pro-growth change that would make Missouri more competitive and let families and businesses keep more of what they earn. Opponents warn it would shift more of the cost of government onto everyday purchases and the people who spend most of what they make.

That is a real debate. It is also a debate now being shaped by money whose original source voters can’t see.

Missouri Promise Inc. was incorporated in Delaware late last year and authorized to do business in Missouri a few months ago. Its state filing lists Garrett M. Lott as chairman, officer and registered agent. Its principal place of business is a private mailbox at 701 Market St. in St. Louis, and its stated purpose is “to promote the common good and general welfare.”

The filing lists Alex Melendez, a political and communications consultant associated with Clark Fork Group, as the person to receive the document. Melendez’s public biography describes him as a campaign strategist whose work has included advocacy groups, PACs, nonprofits and paid advertising.

Clark Fork Group has drawn attention before in Missouri, when it was paid $354,000 by a nonprofit that helped fund the super PAC backing Eric Greitens’ 2016 campaign for governor.

Asked who funded Missouri Promise Inc., what role Melendez or Clark Fork plays in the organization and whether the nonprofit would disclose its donors before the August vote, Jonathon Prouty, a spokesman for Missouri Promise PAC, confirmed the contribution but did not answer the underlying donor question.

“The PAC accepts donations and makes expenditures,” he said. “Those are reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission in accordance with state law. We hope the press will scrutinize our opponents to the same level as Missouri Promise PAC.”

None of this means the arrangement is illegal. Nonprofits can engage in issue advocacy, PACs can accept money from organizations and campaign-finance reports can disclose the entity giving the money without revealing who funded that entity in the first place. 

But here’s the thing: Somewhere upstream from that $1.9 million is a person, company or collection of donors willing to put serious money behind a campaign to eliminate the income tax and replace it with an expanded sales tax. 

Under the current system, voters don’t get to know who they are.

The question Amendment 5 asks is not a small one. It is, at its core, a question about who pays for government and whether Missouri should rely less on taxing income and more on taxing consumption. Serious people disagree about the answer.

But a major voice in that debate is being funded by money that has no public name attached to it. You can follow the money as far as a Delaware filing and a St. Louis mailbox, and then it stops.

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