The Municipal League Is on a Roll

Not content with the Missouri Municipal League putting the good of government over the good of the people by trying to block much-needed reforms to our eminent domain laws (yeah, yeah, I know that the “government” is “us” — would somebody please tell the muny league that?), the St. Louis County Municipal League is attempting to pass a use tax on county citizens and businesses. From the article in the Post-Dispatch:

Dooley said he was acting on behalf of the St. Louis County Municipal League, which wrote to Dooley last week seeking his support of the tax.

Here is my testimony on the subject, which I gave in June to the county commission considering these issues. The imposition of a use tax on county businesses will wipe out one of the competitive advantages that St. Louis County has, and just add incentives for businesses to move to St. Charles. Perhaps I shouldn’t care. The county (and, even more so, the cities within it) can always just give away more tax breaks to favored businesses once they pass the higher taxes on to all of them. That certainly sounds like the basis for good policy …