March 17: Russia, Ukraine, and the Impact on the United States Virtual Event

Posted on March 2, 2022January 13, 2026 by Zach Lawhorn

Join us on March 17 for a virtual event with Senator Jim Talent and Heritage Foundation’s James Jay Carafano as they discuss the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the United States.

Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions via a Q&A session following the discussion. You can submit questions ahead of the event to [email protected]

Register Here

About the Speakers

Senator Jim Talent

Senator Jim Talent brings over 30 years of government and political experience including service in both chambers of Congress. He is a nationally-recognized leader on military affairs whose counsel is frequently sought by administrations and members of the House and Senate on both sides of the political aisle. During his service in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, Senator Talent served on each chamber’s Armed Services Committee where he worked to advance a strong national defense and military readiness. In the U.S. House, in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War, he was a vocal opponent of cuts in the size and strength of the military On the Senate Armed Services Committee, he fought to rebuild the force, which even then was too small, too stressed and desperately in need of recapitalization. An advocate for expanding the U.S. Navy’s fleet to project American power abroad and keep the peace, he chaired the committee’s Naval Power Subcommittee.

James Jay Carafano

James Jay Carafano, a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges, is the vice president of Heritage’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy and the E. W. Richardson Fellow. Carafano is an accomplished historian and teacher as well as a prolific writer and researcher. His most recent publication is “Brutal War” (Lynne Reinner, 2021), a study of combat in the Southwest Pacific. He also authored “Wiki at War: Conflict in a Socially Networked World” (Texas A&M University Press, 2012), a survey of the revolutionary impact of the Internet age on national security. He was selected from thousands to speak on cyber warfare at the 2014 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas, the nation’s premier tech and social media conference.

Brody Corners TIF—It’s Back

Posted on March 1, 2022January 13, 2026 by Corianna Baier

The previously delayed Brody Corners incentive package is back in front of the Springfield City Council. The plan would redirect $3.4 million to the developer of this multi-use project through tax-increment financing (TIF) and a community improvement district (CID). As always, giving away tax dollars to developers is not a good deal for taxpayers.

Apparently, the problems that led to the initial postponement of the project have been overcome as the plan for the $27 million development with retail, restaurant, and office space is moving forward. The land for the proposed development was only annexed into the City of Springfield in June 2021.

The obvious question is: Why would the city annex an area only to spend millions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the development of the land?

I’ll admit that the area seems to be in pretty bad shape, so it may legitimately be considered “blight,” a designation that would qualify the project for TIF. (Blight designations for TIF projects are frequently not legitimate.) But there are other programs intended for environmental remediation that the land’s private owners could pursue that are much less harmful to taxpayers.

Economic development incentives such as TIF put taxpayers on the hook to increase private business profits. While passing this TIF proposal may make Springfield lawmakers look like they are “fixing” this eyesore, it’s at the expense of taxpayers. Lawmakers should focus on keeping tax rates low for everyone instead of playing favorites and artificially lowering them for a chosen few.

Missouri Parents’ Bill of Rights Moves to the House Floor

Posted on February 28, 2022January 13, 2026 by Patrick Ishmael

Missouri parents have a right to play a central role in their kids’ education. A critical piece of legislation that would help to guarantee that right advanced out of committee last week. HJR 110, the Missouri Parents’ Bill of Rights (MPBR), was passed out of the House Rules Committee last Thursday, meaning its next stop is the Missouri House for debate and a vote. Among other things, the resolution would require curriculum transparency and impose meaningful grading of schools and districts so parents can see how their schools and districts stack up to their peers.

One notable thing about this MPBR legislation is that it’s being advanced as a “resolution” rather than just a “bill.” What makes a House Joint Resolution (HJR) different than a bill is that in contrast to a bill that would change state law and requires a governor’s signature, a joint resolution—if agreed to with the Senate —does not require a signature by the governor and is instead sent to the public. If approved by the public, the joint resolution’s language is then added to the state constitution. If approved by the House and Senate, a vote on the MPBR would happen either this summer or fall.

Although HJR 110 has advanced to debate in the House, when that debate will happen remains to be seen. It may get its vote in the next week, or it may get its vote in the next month; House leadership will determine the timeline from here. But given the friction in the Senate, I hope this resolution gets out of the House fairly quickly to provide some breathing room for a vote before the end of the session, should the Senate continue its slow grind. We’ll keep you posted.

WATCH: Missouri School Rankings Project Virtual Event

Posted on February 24, 2022January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

On February 23, Dr. Susan Pendergrass, Director of Research and Education Policy at the Show-Me Institute, presented her findings from the Missouri School Rankings Project and give an overview of how to use the website.

Visit MoSchoolRankings.org.

Missouri schools are failing to teach the core subjects of reading and math, and the most recent test scores show that students are falling further behind. In response to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) failure to perform one of its most basic functions, the Show-Me Institute, in conjunction with Show-Me Opportunity, launched The Missouri School Rankings Project and MoSchoolRankings.org.

Telemedicine Needs Legislative Action

Posted on February 24, 2022January 13, 2026 by Elias Tsapelas

After nearly two years of Missourians enjoying greater access to telemedicine, Governor Parson allowed the waivers that enabled the service’s expansion to expire at the end of 2021. Telemedicine played a crucial role in Missouri’s response to COVID-19, but as I’ve written previously, this required waiving various state laws and regulations. Now that the temporary waivers are gone, telemedicine needs a permanent solution.

Prior to the pandemic, state law made it difficult to use telemedicine for a health care provider that you hadn’t already seen in person. In addition, there were rules that impacted which providers could use the service, the level of services they could provide, and even the treatments they were allowed to prescribe. Once these unnecessary restrictions were waived, telemedicine grew tremendously. Today, there are likely many patients who would prefer retaining expanded options for remote care.

Some providers, including many pharmacists, found that they enjoyed the flexibility provided by Missouri’s COVID-19 waivers. In fact, the Missouri Board of Pharmacists is establishing new rules to prepare for the industry’s more remote-friendly future. Further regulatory changes will be required for other professions, such as re-establishing an easy path for doctors from out-of-state and other willing providers to treat Missourians remotely.

Perhaps the biggest remaining hurdle for telemedicine is the Missouri laws that need to be updated. For example, state statute should be changed to make it easier for providers to write prescriptions for patients they’ve seen remotely. If providers were able to safely treat patients remotely for nearly two years while this law was waived, there’s no good reason to bring it back now. Fortunately, there are multiple bills filed that would represent steps in the right direction on this front, and I’m optimistic one will make it across the finish line this legislative session.

While the telemedicine restrictions were waived as a response to a public health emergency, their absence showed that access to health care in Missouri can be improved without risking patient safety. It’s time for Missouri’s legislature to capitalize on this momentum and make the ease of access Missourians have come to enjoy a permanent feature of telemedicine.

What I Would Like to See from the Resurrected Trolley

Posted on February 23, 2022January 13, 2026 by Jakob Puckett

The Bi-State Development Agency has granted the Loop Trolley a new lease on life. Given the trolley’s poor track record, it’s going to be a steep uphill climb for Bi-State to salvage anything worthwhile from this project.

The biggest problem with the Loop Trolley is that nobody wants to ride it. During its 13 months of operation, ridership was under 10 percent of expectations, which led to equally depressing revenue shortfalls. Time and again, trolley management turned to taxpayers to fill its budget gaps, ultimately pouring $51 million of other people’s money into the project. One of those funders, the Federal Transit Administration, issued an ultimatum to the Loop Trolley Transportation Development District (LTTDD): either restart the trolley or pay back $37 million in federal grants.

Show-Me Institute analysts have been issuing warnings about a taxpayer-funded trolley with minimal demand for more than a decade, so this is not your average “I told you so.” But now that Bi-State has decided to clean up the Loop Trolley’s mess, let’s hope it has a good plan.

Bi-State should do what it can to reduce the overall taxpayer burden. As of now, trolley funding will come solely from the LTTDD’s sales tax on loop shoppers, which will not be enough to run the trolley for long. One way to potentially reduce taxpayers’ burden is to sell advertisement spots on the trolley. (Yes, even park bench personal injury lawyers—somebody needs to represent the owners of the cars the trolley kept managing to hit last time).

Bi-State can also lessen taxpayer burden by charging passengers to ride the trolley. Currently, Bi-State is considering letting passengers ride for free. If the thinking is that this revenue would be too small to make a difference, Bi-State should remember that people voluntarily paying to ride the trolley is better than reaching into the pockets of people who don’t ride the trolley. Charging fares from the start would be better, but if Bi-State decides not to do that, it should at least try to boost ridership to the point of charging fares. Whether that’s seasonally themed rides, reaching out to business and marketing students at Wash U for consulting, or any other novel idea, boosting ridership to the point of charging for fares should be the goal.

The trolley is coming back whether we like it or not. Let’s hope Bi-State finds a way to get taxpayers off the hook.

February 23 Event is Now Online Only

Posted on February 22, 2022January 13, 2026 by Zach Lawhorn

Due to concerns about winter weather, our scheduled event in Jefferson City on February 23 is now an online-only virtual event.

Please register here to join us online at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 23!

About the event

On February 23, Susan Pendergrass, director of research and education policy, will present her findings from the Missouri School Rankings Project and give an overview of how to use the website.

New Grid Operator Study Highlights the Need for More Transmission

Posted on February 21, 2022January 13, 2026 by Jakob Puckett

Missouri’s electric grid operators are requesting new transmission lines. Electric transmission lines carry power from power plants to homes and businesses. Too much power on the line increases the risk of damaging it, and as I’ve written previously, several parts of Missouri already have overloaded transmission lines.

More transmission lines will need to be built to relieve this congestion. The two regional electric grids that Missouri belongs to—the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP)—have released a draft study identifying several points along their shared electric grid borders—including spots in Missouri—where new transmission projects can help relieve congestion and increase connectivity between different grids.

The study noted several benefits of a more interconnected transmission network. Given that MISO and SPP’s wholesale energy markets select the lowest-cost electricity sources to meet regional demand, a more connected grid allows the most efficient power plants to produce electricity for a wider region. Greater transmission connection also increases reliability, as more power can flow between larger geographic areas in case one spot has trouble meeting electric demand.

The study estimated that the total benefits to customers in the MISO and SPP regions would be roughly $1 billion, savings which would cover a little over half of the expected $1.8 billion cost. It is important to note that these numbers are self reported, although the benefits of more integrated markets and transmission networks are widely understood.

Evidently, the need for expanded transmission capacity in Missouri has caught state legislators’ eyes. However, as I described recently, the bills in the House and Senate take the wrong approach to building out more transmission capacity. These bills give incumbent utilities veto power for new transmission construction proposals. Instead, Missouri should embrace a competitive bidding process, which on average cuts costs by 40 percent.

Electric delivery costs, which include transmission and distribution, are a growing fraction of the cost of providing electricity to customers. Given Missourians’ already rapidly rising electricity bills, policymakers should be keen on finding ways to reduce costs.

Missouri could benefit from expanded electricity transmission, but there are good ways and bad ways to go about doing that. Let’s hope legislators come down on the side of market forces and competition.

Occupational License Compacts Counteract Reciprocity

Posted on February 18, 2022January 13, 2026 by Corianna Baier

In 2020, Missouri became one of the first states to enact universal licensing reciprocity. This was a huge step forward that allows Missouri to recognize out-of-state occupational licenses, making it much easier for trained professionals to offer services to Missourians.

Now House Bill 2138 seeks to establish Missouri as part of a licensure compact, which is an agreement between and among states that establishes mutual recognition of specific licenses and is overseen by a third-party regulatory group. This specific compact, the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact, would establish mutual license recognition for audiologists and speech-language pathologists in the 15 states in the compact.

There are two main benefits to joining a compact: licensed workers in other compact states can more easily relocate to your state, and licensed workers in your state can more easily relocate or expand their reach to other compact states. Missouri lawmakers have already provided an expanded version of the first benefit, but some Missourians could profit from the second point.

However, the current licensing reciprocity statute states that licensing reciprocity “shall not apply to an oversight body that has entered into a licensing compact with another state for the regulation of practice under the oversight body’s jurisdiction.” On its face, this language indicates that the license compact would overrule licensing reciprocity to the injury of Missouri consumers.

Here’s another way to think about it. With Missouri’s current licensing reciprocity, Missouri consumers have access to professionals in 50 states and Missouri licensees have access to 1 state (Missouri). (Of course, they may have access to other states with reciprocity, but that is not controlled by Missouri lawmakers.) If Missouri were to enter the Audiology and Speech-Pathology Interstate Compact, it seems that consumers seeking audiology or speech pathology services would have access to professionals from only 16 states (the 15 in the compact plus Missouri), and Missouri licensees would have access to customers in 16 states. While this change gives a small benefit to licensees, Missouri consumers lose out.

Entering this compact with the current licensing statute in place would be a bad idea. Missourians benefit from reciprocity in many ways—reciprocity creates more options for various services, breeds more competition which lowers prices, and encourages businesses and entrepreneurs to move to Missouri, which makes the Show-Me State more prosperous. Because of this, entering a compact would be a step backward for regulatory policy in Missouri.