Quentin Wilson, the union-endorsed candidate for Missouri State Auditor, is running his campaign at a time of crisis for Missouri’s budget: the Show-Me State is facing a budget shortfall of around $2 billion for the 2027 fiscal year, according to an independent analysis from the Missouri Budget Project. Wilson warns that unless decisive action is taken, the state’s rising deficit could result in the state government cutting important services for Missourians in the near future.
He’s running to prevent this from happening.
“Well, when the legislature gets there in January, they’re going to have to work on a budget to fix a $2 billion hole. This is going to affect education, infrastructure and the economy in this state,” Wilson noted.
Missouri needs a state auditor who can identify waste, improve government efficiency and protect the public programs that workers and families depend on.
As the Democratic candidate for state auditor, he plans on restructuring the Missouri State Auditor’s Office to model it off of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal organization that actively searches for ways to save money and improve funding efficiency, in order to spend Missouri taxpayer dollars more efficiently and reduce the state’s rising deficit. Wilson estimates that he can save as much as $1 billion a year.
“I think that’s why having a GAO model that can save an average of a billion dollars a year is so important,” Wilson noted. “Because if we don’t get it, we’re going to have tremendous cuts and impacts at every community in the state.”
Even though this is Wilson’s first time running for office, he has years of experience managing the state’s finances and government. He served as the Director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, the Deputy Director of Economic Development, Cabinet Director, and the State Commissioner of Higher Education.
He believes the knowledge and experience he’s gained from these positions make him uniquely positioned to deal with the state’s current economic issues.
“I have an experience in federal, state, and local government that I think prepares me to from day one jump in and have that office fulfill a more impactful role on reversing the political and economic conditions in the state,” Wilson said.
While serving in his statewide positions, he played a part in managing Missouri’s finances at a time when it was ranked among the “best run state governments” in the nation by Governing Magazine in 1999. Missouri was also highly ranked in 2001.
“It wasn’t just a certificate of recognition, it reflected performance and results that the people of Missouri were getting. I’ve seen since that time the rankings of Missouri have fallen,” Wilson pointed out.
Under his leadership as Director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, the department became the first ever state agency in Missouri history to receive the Missouri Quality Award.
Wilson’s actions speak louder than his words. He already has direct experience spending taxpayer dollars efficiently and making sure Missourians receive the support they need from the programs they depend on.
As Director of the Missouri Department of Revenue, Wilson changed motor vehicle registration from every 1 year to every 2 years and made complying with vehicle registration tax laws easier to understand. Through this reform, he increased the number of people complying with state law and saved $6 million annually.
Under his tenure as State Cabinet Director, Missouri developed protections for construction workers along I-70, reducing the chance of workers getting killed or injured by passing cars while also saving money.
“For example, a method of closing down highways and using alternative routes throughout the entire length of the project, so [the workers] weren’t moving the construction equipment and the cones all day,” he said. “You can just see how the safety of workers improved and I think they saved $38 million a year that could be reallocated.”
As Missouri State Auditor, he says he’ll use similar strategies to spend your tax dollars wisely to help balance the state’s books.
“Every department has opportunities to do that. I think it’s always important to pay attention to possibilities of waste, fraud and abuse and expose those and try to prevent them in the future.”
Wilson also noted that as state auditor, he would work across party lines with both Republicans and Democrats to deliver results.
“I do believe it’s important that we move away from the partisanship that having one party domination leads to,” Wilson said. “I’m going to have to work across party lines to get things done. I think there are a number of legislators of both parties that could become part of this alliance and work together. I think it would be better for the people of the state.
According to his website, Wilson is endorsed by the Missouri AFL-CIO, the LiUNA Missouri and Kansas Laborers District Council, the United Auto Workers and Teamsters Local 688.
Quentin Wilson: The Man Behind the Race
Wilson said he grew up in a working-class household outside the St. Louis area. Both his parents worked to provide for their 7 children.
“My father was a schoolteacher, he was the leader of a teacher’s union local in the St. Louis area. He and my mother had 7 children so he worked more than that one job. Nowadays it’s very difficult for a young couple to do that, everything costs too much and I think [the] government can help with that.”
He’s a Kirkwood High School graduate who pulled himself up by his bootstraps and got a BA from George Washington University and an MBA from St. Louis University. He says he’s worried young families nowadays are struggling to afford the same opportunities he once had.
“We weren’t a wealthy family but we were able to afford the education and the opportunities that now I think you need to be in the upper middle class to do that.”
Wilson is also a husband, father, and grandfather.
How Did We Get Here and What’s at Stake:
Wilson warns that unless decisive action is taken, Missouri’s large $2 billion budget deficit may force the state government to cut funding for state programs in the near future.
The state government has already made cuts or given stagnant funding to the following services:
- Cutting 20% of the Missouri Area Agencies on Aging’s budget for the Senior Services Growth and Development Program, a program that provides nutrition and care for elderly Missourians who can’t independently take care of themselves.
- Reallocating $72 million away from the Blind Pension Fund, a fund that provides monthly grants and healthcare to blind Missourians.
- Underfunding Missouri K-12 public schools by $190 million.
- Cutting public school transportation by $17.15 million.
The Governor and state legislature also considered cuts to other services, which were narrowly avoided by cobbling together government Covid relief funds and other miscellaneous funds, which acted as a short-term fix to stabilize the state’s budget.
However, the Covid relief funds are now mostly used up. There’s just $261 million in the relief fund’s savings left for the 2027 fiscal year, down from $2 billion in savings for the 2026 fiscal year, meaning that in the future the state will be less able to use similar short-term quick fixes to avoid cuts.
The proposed cuts, which were narrowly avoided, included a $51.5 million proposed cut to childcare and a $80.7 million proposed cut for programs assisting Missourians with developmental disabilities.
Traci Gleason, the vice president and external relations manager of the Missouri Budget Project, a non-partisan policy organization, was interviewed by The Labor Beacon. She said that the childcare and disability programs may be back on the chopping block.
“They were talking about significant cuts in child subsidies [and] programs for Missourians with disabilities,” Gleason said. “This year we already saw cuts in funding for K-12 schools and services for old Missourians that allowed them to remain independent in their homes. We used one-time fixes to paper over some of those funds.”
According to the Missouri Budget Project, one of the biggest causes of Missouri’s budget shortfall is the state’s low taxes, which are causing the state to not bring in enough revenue to balance its books.
When fully implemented, the tax cuts will cost Missouri $3.8 billion in revenue a year.
“We have set up a tax structure that won’t bring in enough revenue to fund the services that are the building blocks of our economy. Social services, education, quality roads and bridges, infrastructure that opens up our opportunities for us all,” Gleason stated.
The state’s tax cuts also tax lower-income Missourians more. Missourians earning under $21,000 a year pay around 9.8% of their income in taxes while Missourians making over $590,000 in income pay only 5.7% of their income in taxes, according to the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy.
“With these tax cuts we’ve set up a system where low- and middle-income families are contributing more, but the services that help their families succeed are being cut,” Gleason said.
The situation Missouri finds itself in has some precedent; some states that faced large budget shortfalls in the billions and didn’t deal with their problems early were forced to drastically cut spending to balance their books.
In 2024, after reducing revenue by cutting taxes, the state of Arizona faced a budget shortfall of around $1.4 billion. This shortfall resulted in the state government cutting funding for most government agencies by around 3.45%, including cuts to infrastructure, water desalination projects, and education.
In 2016, after reducing revenue by cutting taxes, then-Kansas Governor Sam Brownback cut spending for most state agencies by 4% across the board, gutting funding for education and other services.
Public Schools Struggling with Funding
Local public school districts across Missouri have been impacted by the lack of funding and are now navigating a world where Missouri isn’t supporting them like it used to.
“Those state budget issues trickle down to our classrooms where our districts are gonna have to balance their budgets so they are gonna be weighing things like cutting teachers, increasing class sizes, [and] cutting support staff,” said Gleason.
In an interview with The Labor Beacon, Bowling Green School District Superintendent Jeff Jennewein expressed concern about his district’s finances, warning that his district was underfunded by around $800,000.
“We always have room to improve, but I just don’t know how we can improve without the funding. Our teachers work hard and they’re very important, our students are the future. You can’t do more with less,” Jennewein noted.
Jennewein warned that this lack of funding could force his district to start making difficult decisions on where to cut spending, noting that it was becoming hard for his district to budget ever-increasing expenditures which include paying monthly bills, maintaining existing facilities and providing teacher salaries.
“Do we have fewer teachers? Because most expenditures come from salary. That increases class sizes, that reduces additional opportunities for students, that reduces the services provided to students. Or do we address facilities,” the superintendent said.
This lack of funding comes at a time when Missouri is ranked 48th in teacher pay, according to the Missouri National Education Association, with average teacher salaries at just $57,366, around 25% below the $76,552 national average for teachers.
The issue may get even worse for public school districts like Bowling Green. The State Board of Education recently recommended a budget that would leave an even higher $270 million funding gap for schools.
Quentin Wilson: The Best Man For the Job
Although the state auditor cannot enact policy or pass legislation, the auditor can identify waste, improve government efficiency, and recommend spending. Wilson’s plan for a more proactive state auditor’s office is desperately needed by Missouri to balance the state’s books now before future cuts to state programs gut assistance that millions of Missouri workers rely on.
His years of experience in government of finding waste without cutting programs, along with his history of prioritizing workers, make him the best man for the job.
“There are opportunities to reduce the burden on working people,” Wilson said. “I think that the environment is right, people seem to be eager for a change, and I think people are eager to see officials working across party lines.”
Patrick Sanders — an Independence native — is a student journalist from the University of Missouri-Columbia writing for the Labor Beacon. Before joining the Labor Beacon, he wrote for KBIA News, a Mid-Missouri NPR-affiliated news organization. Sanders's grandfather Bruce was a long-time member of the postal workers union, and his older cousin is currently in IBEW Local 124. In his free time, Sanders enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading, and weightlifting. He hopes to bring his knowledge of policy to benefit workers in the greater Kansas City area and give working people a fighting chance.
