Government

Missouri is still governed under the Constitution adopted in 1945. The state had three earlier constitutions. The governor is the head of Missouri's government. The governor is elected to a four-year term and is limited to two terms. The lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general, and state auditor are all elected to four-year terms. However, the governor appoints many of the other officials who head key agencies in the state government.

Missouri's legislature is known as the General Assembly, which consists of a 34-member Senate and a 163-member House of Representatives. Senators are elected to four-year terms and representatives to two-year terms.

The state Supreme Court is Missouri's highest court. The state judiciary also includes the state Court of Appeals, circuit courts, associate circuit courts, and municipal courts.

Most cities in Missouri have a mayor-council form of government. St. Louis is governed by a mayor, a board of 28 aldermen, and the president of the aldermanic board. St. Louis, however, is an dependent city and is not part of any of Missouri's 114 counties.

Transportation. Missouri has long provided important transportation routes, beginning in the stagecoach and steamboat eras. Today, both St. Louis and Kansas City are major transportation hubs for railways, highways, and airlines.

Roughly a dozen trunk railways provide service within the state; a number of eastern railways have western terminals in St. Louis. Numerous Interstate and other multilane divided highways serve the state, primarily in the St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia-Jefferson City areas. Missouri has more than 250 public airports, including international airports at St. Louis and Kansas City. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers together provide more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of navigable waterways. The St. Louis area is one of the nation's chief inland ports.