Steve Kraske’s Quality Of Life

In today’s Kansas City Star (last item), Steve Kraske listed our Sept. 17 Kansas City Policy Breakfast, “Is it Time To Leave Kansas City?” It is the first of our series in Kansas City, and we are eager for people to attend and learn more about the Show-Me Institute and the policies that affect them. To that end, we are grateful that Kraske mentioned us.

However, Kraske’s post includes a little dig. Here is his offering in its entirety (emphasis his):

•  “Is It Time to Leave Kansas City?” — the title of a mid-September program sponsored by the conservative Missouri-based Show-Me Institute. The institute has recommended big tax cuts in Missouri to allow the state to, in its view, better compete with Kansas.
Talk about a gathering with a loaded agenda. Just guessing there won’t be much talk about why people choose to live in KC. Can you say “quality of life?”

First, Kraske pretends that the issues with which Kansas City struggles — crime, education, high taxes, ineffective government — do not impact quality of life. They most certainly do. Second, he leaves out that Kraske himself lives in Kansas. I don’t know if Kraske ever lived in Missouri. But if he did, at some point he asked himself, “Is it time to leave Kansas City?” and answered that it was.

Kraske would not be alone; hundreds of Missourians ask themselves this question all the time. Not everyone chooses to leave the state, but many leave the city. The Show-Me Institute merely wants to shed light on the process.

We look forward to seeing Kraske at the event. And we welcome learning his own reasons for leaving, or at least not living in, Missouri.