Over half of Missouri s signs advertise travel and tourism-related services. Proposition A makes no provision to allow for almost 4000 existing signs which are currently classified as legal non-conforming. This money would come from state and federal highway funds. In reality, the proposal would ban all outdoor advertising except official state signs. It changes the intent of Missouri s law from balancing aesthetic interests with those of the business community, property rights and free speech to the single purpose of removing as many signs as possible as quickly as possible.
Outdoor advertising is reduced to the status of a public nuisance.
While the title language refers to increasing local authority, in reality it takes away local authority to allow signs. The indirect cost to Missouri s business and tourism industries would be hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost revenue. The fact that the primary focus of Proposition A is the reduction of signs and the elimination of thousands of existing signs is never even mentioned in the ballot title. Outdoor advertising is, by far, the most effective and inexpensive means to reach the traveling public and for the tourists to locate attractions and services. It is relied on extensively by Missouri s tourism and travel-related industries.