Are you listening, Missouri lawmakers? This is the Ghost of Christmas Past. I am calling on you to mend your ways and adopt a whole new set of economic policies to replace the failed policies of the past two decades.

Yes, my friends, it is time for you to admit that what you have been doing—in spending billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to subsidize commercial projects for the benefit of big, cash-rich companies such as Boeing, Cerner, Capri Casinos, Wal-Mart, and Whole Foods—has been a ghastly mistake.

In the 16 years from 1997 through 2013, Missouri has trailed every other state in the nation but one in average annual economic growth. Missouri ranked 49th out of the 50 states in growth of state gross domestic product—just ahead of bottom-dwelling Michigan.

And that is despite (or, I would say, because of) the fact that you have turned Missouri into one of the nine states considered the “corporate welfare kings of America.” According to the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Missouri has committed more than $5.2 billion in state and local subsidies to private businesses over the past two decades. That is more than all but eight other states.

What else can I say to convince you of the urgent need for change? Well, perhaps some specific suggestions would help.

Here are five New Year’s resolutions for making Missouri a better place to live and work and grow a business:

• Stop putting the public sector cart in front of the private sector horse. That is to say, begin with the recognition that all the private sector really needs to create wealth and jobs is competition and freedom of choice. It doesn’t need central planning and controls, which have the opposite effect of stifling individual initiative and economic growth.
• Abolish the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) and return the money that the DED passes out in targeted tax credits for economic development (about $400 million a year) to everyone (not just the politically selected few) through broad-based cuts in the state income tax for individuals and businesses.
• Take advantage of a wealth of opportunities across the state to enlarge the private sector and shrink the public sector through privatization. That is what Arnold did recently in selling its publicly owned and operated sewer system to a private contractor for $13.2 million—allowing the city of 20,000 people to pay off $8 million in sewer bonds and devote another $5.2 million to other public improvement. Better yet, under private ownership, the sewer system will go on the tax rolls and help pay for schools and other public services.
• Make greatly increased use of tolls on Hwy. 70 and other major roadways and bridges. Tolls are an extremely efficient tax, and—as a result of new technology—they are readily collectible without toll booths or other inconvenience to people using the roadways. In fact, through variable tolls, the Missouri Department of Transportation could—at minimal cost—guarantee drivers congestion-free traffic flows at all hours of the day on major roadways and bridges.
• Finally, look to what neighboring states are doing in reorienting their tax structures and put Missouri in the forefront of states that are pursuing pro-growth, pro-economic freedom reforms.

In the Christmas spirit, I urge you to make all those changes—knowing that you will wake up shortly wanting to fix the problems that have kept Missouri from reaching its full potential.

Andrew B. Wilson is a resident fellow and senior writer at the Show-Me Institute.

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David Stokes, policy analyst with the Show-Me Institute, and Sidney Watson, a member of the Center for Health Law Studies at Saint Louis University, debate the merits of Obamacare on NewsChannel 5 KSDK.

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Transcript:

Remember alphabet soup when you were a kid and trying to make the letters into words? Lawmakers like to play with letters, too, with tax subsidies: TIFs, EEZs, TDDs…

The list goes on and on, but they all have one thing in common. They give corporations our tax dollars.

Take TIFs for example: Tax Increment Financing. Because of a TIF, Independence tax payers have paid 8 million dollars on top of the original subsidy to support a Bass Pro store.

You may think any new business is good no matter the tax break, but studies have found that TIFs cost areas billions of dollars without achieving economic growth.

Let’s say “goodbye” to the alphabet soup of tax subsidies like when Lee’s Summit rejected an EEZ and focus on real economic growth.

This has been the Show-Me Minute. Learn more about the Show-Me
Institute, where liberty comes first, click on our website at ShowMeInstitute.org.

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Transcript:

It used to mean a football or basketball game, but now the Border War between Missouri and Kansas is more like a high stakes game of poker. Kansas has raised the ante by dramatically lowering taxes on both individuals and businesses. Governor Sam Brownback is betting that lower tax rates will ultimately mean more economic growth, and a bigger jackpot for the state.

So what should Missouri do?

Well its leaders can stay with a pat hand–one that has left the state lagging well behind others in growth–and risk having some businesses and citizens cross the border for the neighborly tax haven. Show-Me Institute economists say that could mean a loss of $300 million in goods and services, and 4500 jobs to boot. Or leaders can push for tax reform, lowering taxes and cutting tax credits so the state can compete, and maybe even win, the economic Border War.

This has been the Show-Me Minute. Learn more about the Show-Me Institute, where liberty comes first, click on our website at ShowMeInstitute.org.

 

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Transcript:

Know any big time gamblers?

Sure you do. They’re your elected
officials. They gamble all the time with tax credits. Tax credits sound like
a great idea–a way to attract business without spending any money. It’s
like using your credit card to buy that expensive watch or HD TV you’ve
always wanted. You don’t have to pay any money up front and you figure
you’ll somehow have the money when you need it. So Governments hand
out tax credits like candy, rolling the dice with your dollars and betting that
they can pick winning businesses.

But tax credits aren’t free money. Often the gamble doesn’t pay
off and then the bill comes to you in the form of reduced services or
higher taxes. Why should lawmakers gamble with your money? They
shouldn’t. Let the free market work. If a business idea is such a good one,
let private entrepreneurs develop it and assume the risk.

This has been the Show-Me Minute.~ learn more about the Show-Me
Institute, where liberty comes first, click on our website at ShowMeInstitute.org

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• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Childhood Poverty is Indeed a Problem in Missouri, but Big Government Programs Aren’t the Way to Solve it (Michael Rathbone)
• St. Louis Beacon: High College Costs are Hard to Solve (R.W. Hafer)
• Tony’s Kansas City: City Leaders Shouldn’t Duplicate Cincinnati’s Mistakes when Renovating KCI (Patrick Tuohey)
• KTRS’s McGraw Milhaven: Analysis of the Recently Completed Legislative Session (David Stokes)

New this week:

• Video: Michelle Rhee: Radical: Fighting to put Students First
• Testimony: Warren County Should Not Institute An Enhanced Enterprise Zone (David Stokes)

And much more from the Show-Me Institute on our Show-Me Daily blog.

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Rhee is past chancellor of the Washington D.C. Public Schools and the founder, CEO, and president of the New Teacher Project. In 2010, she founded StudentsFirst, a non-profit organization which works on education reform issues such as ending teacher tenure. This event was co-sponsored by the Show-Me Institute.

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