LAKE OZARK, Mo., — If Missouri’s Secretary of State has his way, less state money will be spent in the future for advertising ballot issues like constitutional amendment questions.

“Something’s gotta give,” Jay Ashcroft told Missouri Press Association directors on Friday during their meeting at Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Mo. “Either you come up with a solution or the legislature will.”

Ashcroft, a Republican, suggested the legislature will create a state elections publication rate to reduce the increasing costs for advertising election issues. “Something akin to political advertising campaigns,” he noted.

Ashcroft told Missouri newspaper publishers the more than $8 million spent on publishing public election notices during the 2018 mid-term election was simply too much money out of state coffers. The state had budgeted $6 million for the ballot to run in Missouri newspapers.

“That’s a ton of taxpayer dollars I didn’t feel was appropriate,” Aschroft said. “If you guys don’t come up with something that works for you, the legislature will come up with something that works for them.”

Ashcroft said they are not pushing to have everything on a website. Missouri Press board members asked Ashcroft what he thought the legislature would do.

“I think the legislature might present a rate — something akin to what you see with broadcasting,” he said. “If we have to do it, set a rate.”

Ashcroft said he knows many of the newspapers build the ballot revenue into their budgets.

“But if you are saying your business is more important than what’s best for everyone, I’m not sure that argument is in your favor.”

Ashcroft said he doubted that a thousand people picked up copies of the last ballot language in the papers statewide.

“I think something’s going to be done but it’s too much money,” he said.

Press association members countered they had already agreed to running the notices in a reduced number of publications and had offered discounted rates. The large number of ballot issues including lengthy petitions seeking to amend the state constitution were cited as the reason for the longer-than-usual election notices.

“I’m not sure if that’s going to win the day,” Ashcroft said. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

Ashcroft said there was a “perception that all this money was spent and it really didn’t matter.”

He questioned the cost of printing based on the number of copies printed and the extra copies printed. He suggested many of those went uncirculated.

Several publishers told the secretary and his staffers in attendance they had numerous readers request additional copies of the election materials.

“You’ve got to tell the legislators it’s important to your readers,” Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft’s visit to the press association’s summer meeting follows a spring legislations where Missouri newspapers fended off attempts to reduce requirements for government agencies on publishing public notices and for financial institutions to stop using print media for notices of foreclosure.

Missouri Press officials said a piece of legislation (Senate Bill 515) was introduced mid-session which would have provided rate reductions on second and third insertion orders for foreclosure notices. The proposed legislation would have also required Missouri newspapers to post all public notices to the press association’s mopublicnotices.com website after publication in print.

These notices would be published to the website free of charge.

Ashcroft said he saw the bill, but didn’t support it.

“If you are going to submit a bill, and require a website — they are looking to save money — they aren’t going to like still having to spend money,” Ashcroft said.

SB 515 was introduced too late in the session to gain any traction, according to Mark Maassen, Missouri Press Association’s executive director. He said the association hopes to have the bill resubmitted before the start of the 2020 spring session.

A large financing firm had promoted legislation which proposed these notices be posted on a website controlled by the financial industry itself. Missouri Press members expressed opposition over such a proposal.

Missouri Press Board Member Julie Moreno asked Ashcroft about trends the state could expect in future elections.

“Do you believe the issue was exacerbated by the length of the ballot? Is that an anomaly or the future moving forward?” Moreno asked.

Ashcroft said he thinks this is the future.

“I think we are going to see, in the near future, people using petition projects to get things on the ballot,” he said. “I think you see one side can’t get stuff through, and they are getting things to the ballot this way.”

Ashcroft told press members he wanted to see refundable filing fees increase for those submitting initiative petitions for ballot consideration as a means to control costs for researching anticipated costs for implementing constitutional amendments.

If your petition is accepted, your filing fee is refunded. 

He said he hopes to stop groups which never intend to collect signatures to go along with the petition from wasting the state’s time and manpower resources during the validation and cost-assessment process.

Ashcroft said it is easy to get something on the ballot for those who have money, but harder for “Joe Citizen.”

“I think there is a set in the younger generation that is moving towards straight democracy,” he said.

He also hopes to “raise the threshold for approval” noting that in smaller election cycles, like a primary, only 16 percent of voters could approve a constitutional change if there’s only a 30-percent voter turnout. 

“People with money can get the constitution changed,” he said. 

(With reporting by Roxie Murphy of The Republican’s and Maries County Advocate’s staff).