In rural Missouri, where family farms and small businesses anchor communities like Chillicothe, Bunceton, and Keytesville, residents are facing a new challenge: rising utility bills driven by Senate Bill 4 (SB4). Signed into law by Governor Mike Kehoe in April 2025, SB4 has sparked debate for prioritizing the energy needs of Kansas City’s data centers over the financial well-being of rural Missourians. State Representative Tim Taylor (R-Bunceton) and State Senator Rusty Black (R-Chillicothe), who voted for the bill, have drawn criticism for supporting a measure that benefits liberal, Democrat-run Kansas City and corporations like Meta, Google, and Evergy, while leaving their conservative rural constituents with higher costs and no local economic gains. With big tech’s massive profits, many question why Missouri ratepayers, not corporations, are funding the infrastructure these data centers demand.
SB4: Higher Bills for Rural Missourians
SB4, a 133-page utility reform bill, repeals a 1976 voter-approved ban on Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) charges, allowing utilities to bill customers for power plants before they are operational. This enables Evergy to fund infrastructure for Kansas City’s energy-intensive data centers by passing costs to consumers. The Consumers Council of Missouri has highlighted the bill’s impact:
SB4 is anti-consumer, plain ...
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