Two More November Ballot Issues

To follow up on yesterday’s post, we have some studies and articles out looking at a couple more ballot issues. One of our current interns, the original Wizard of Washington (Mo.), Jacob Voss, has a well-thought-out piece about the renewable energy mandate on the ballot. This has also been the subject of some great discussion on Show-Me Daily, and MOPNS is hosting it on their site, as well. (And thank you for that, Scooter!) Whatever the pluses and minuses of the issue, mandates are very rarely a good thing in economics. Perhaps this is one of the exceptions? But I doubt it. …

The last major ballot issue about which we have something to say is the question of whether to adopt the Missouri Plan for judicial selection in Greene County. We released a major study about the statewide impact of such plans earlier this year. It concluded that states using judicial selection panels, in one form or another, rather than elections, have a high correlation with good overall environments for business. Yours truly framed that argument in relation to Greene County (that’s the Springfield area, in case you didn’t know) in an article where I argue that the Missouri Plan could benefit the area’s residents.

So, voters both statewide and in our big cities, please review our work before you go into the ballot box to make your own well-researched decisions. Especially because an informed vote has absolutely no marginal utility whatsoever over an uninformed vote — which is depressing, but I’ll leave that particular issue to our editor. …