The Missouri Legislature needs to act now and allow students in the unaccredited Saint Louis and Kansas City public school districts to attend alternative schools that have a proven track record of providing a good education.

Cities, counties, school districts, and many other local taxing districts rely on property taxes to fund their operations. For a full review of the details of property assessment and taxation in Missouri, please read Show-Me Institute Policy Study Number 28, “Homes, Taxes and Choices: A Review of Real Estate Assessment and Property Taxation in Missouri.” In Missouri, the local assessor assigns a value to taxable property every two years. Local governments then use those values to set their property tax rates. The rate and value are...

Tax incentives are among the main instruments of state and local economic development policy, and tax credits are among the most prevalent types...

Saint Louis politicians, media, and bloggers have enthusiastically embraced proposed legislation that would create a package of tax credits and other incentives to establish Lambert International Airport as a "China Hub." The idea is that increased trade between Missouri and China could give both the state and city economies a boost.

Missouri’s two largest cities, and their related primary counties, have chosen substantially different systems of local government. The stark differences between Saint Louis and Kansas City stand out, even though it is common for larger cities within the same state to have different government structures.1 These differences among the governments of Kansas City and Jackson County, and Saint Louis City and the neighboring, but separate, Saint Louis County, are both obvious and subtle. In fact, the few similarities are rare enough to be... ...more

Think, if you will, about the difference in the taxes that property owners pay to fund local parks and the entrance fee your family pays to visit Yellowstone National Park. That is the appropriate framework to begin discussing toll roads. Everyone in the community can access local parks so general taxes support their existence. A much smaller percentage of people visit Yellowstone each year, and those people support it with an admission fee. Interstate highways are like Yellowstone — admission fees (tolls) are the preferred means of funding.