Time Running Out to Protect Telemedicine

Posted on by Elias Tsapelas

One of the few bright spots from the past year was the removal of various barriers that were needlessly restricting access to telemedicine services. Unfortunately for Missouri, unless there’s action before August 31, those barriers will be going back up.

At the outset of the pandemic there were serious concerns that an influx of patients would overwhelm our state’s hospitals and clinics, and expanding telemedicine usage offered a timely solution. Allowing patients to access their health care providers remotely helped relieve the strain on an area’s hospitals while also allowing those at risk of being exposed to the virus to receive care from the comfort of their own homes. That’s why back in March of 2020, after Governor Parson declared a state of emergency to help the state respond to COVID-19, he then waived various regulations that were making it harder for Missourians to receive care via telemedicine. (See more here about the specific regulations that were waived.)

But as our communities turn the corner on the pandemic, it’s likely Missouri’s state of emergency declaration will be allowed to expire on August 31. And with its expiration, the various regulations that were waived to fight the pandemic will return, which includes those that restrict access to telemedicine. My colleagues and I have been writing for the past year about the importance of making these and other regulatory waivers permanent, and while there was some optimism toward the end of the legislative session, none of the bills including those provisions made it across the finish line.

It’s important that our elected officials remember what was learned during the pandemic. So much has changed over the past year, including the dramatic rise in telemedicine usage, and there’s no reason to return to the old status quo when we now know that things can be better. Too many Missourians still struggle to access the health care they need when they need it; why would Missouri bring back old barriers that only make receiving care more difficult?

Going into next year, improving health care access for Missourians should be a priority for our elected officials. The easiest way to move forward is the policy of making permanent the regulation waivers that have been so helpful over the past year.

Ready, Fire, Aim

Posted on by David Stokes

A group has released a new plan to consolidate the fire departments of St. Louis County and create more independent fire districts. But, first, a little background.

The residents of St. Louis County are either served by municipal fire departments, such as the Clayton Fire Department, or by independent fire districts, such as the Monarch Fire District. The fire departments are run by the mayors, city councils, and city managers of their respective towns. The fire districts are run by independently elected fire boards.

In past years, there have been plenty of scandals in fire service management in St. Louis County. Clearly, the scandals must have been in the municipal fire departments, which is why the plan is to eliminate these departments and replace them with the Ceasar’s wives of the fire districts. Right?

Wrong.

The scandals in the fire districts have been well documented over the years by the Post-Dispatch and others. (Unfortunately, I am unable to locate online the main series of investigative stories from the Post-Dispatch that was published about 20 years ago—the lessons in it still stand.) It is the fire districts that have seen consistent financial mismanagement and worse. So why would somebody propose eliminating fire departments and expanding fire districts? Who would possibly propose such a thing?

The fireman’s union, of course. It is likely easier to take electoral control of an independent fire district than a city hall. People pay much more attention to their votes for mayor than their votes for fire district board. Mayors and city council members must consider the costs of fire service as one of many important services their cities provide and put that within a context of overall taxes and spending. Fire district officials just think about spending money on fire services, usually with much less oversight than a city hall gets. In a few places in recent years, such as the Mehlville and Monarch fire districts, newly elected members of the districts have attempted to better control costs. Things have improved at those two major fire districts, but at the price of constant vigilance by the residents. There have been more recent examples of taxpayer abuses in the Northeast Fire District, and the Robertson Fire District is continuing to squeeze the City of Hazelwood to this day.

While nobody says democracy should be easy, you also don’t want to make it harder than it needs to be by constantly growing the number of special taxing districts that voters have to carefully pay attention to. Special interests can benefit from this lack of attention by the average voter, and that is why fire departments should remain under municipal control in St. Louis County.

Merging a dozen municipal fire departments in mid–St. Louis County into one large fire district is a bad idea. You almost have to admire the audacity of it.

There were some good ideas and some bad ideas in the Better Together proposal of a few years back. The work the organization did with the fire departments was probably some of its most poorly done work.

We do need more consolidation, service sharing, and less fragmentation in St. Louis County government. This proposal by the fireman’s union is absolutely the wrong way to go about it.

Clayton Expands Opportunities for Food Trucks

Posted on by Kate Poortenga

Food trucks are often more popular with customers than with legislators. For years, food truck owners have fought their way through burdensome red tape to survive in the market. The convenience, low prices, and unique options of food trucks are becoming increasingly attractive to people, and policymakers are starting to catch on.

On June 8th, legislation was approved in the City of Clayton to allow more freedom and flexibility for mobile food vending equipment. Previously, food trucks could serve closed groups at private events, but they could only serve the public on their own property. That essentially allows food trucks to do the “food” part of their name but not the “truck” part.

This new legislation allows food trucks to operate at public events outside downtown Clayton with an approved special events application, expanding a food truck’s market to include block parties, neighborhood gatherings, and similar events. The legislation also lifts the prohibition on individual cash payments at these events.

Current permit requirements remain (temporary merchant permits, right of way permits, special events permits, etc.) and safe use of streets and sidewalks remains a priority. While food trucks still cannot serve the general public in downtown Clayton (unless the food truck is on its own property), these changes mark significant progress. This legislation is a good move for food truck vendors and customers.

Privatizing Lebanon, Missouri’s Municipal Electric Utility

Posted on by Jakob Puckett

City officials in Lebanon are considering getting out of the municipal electric business by selling their electric utility or, at a minimum turning over its management, to Laclede Electric. While discussions began only recently and no cost-benefit studies have been completed yet, residents should keep an open mind about this development.

Lebanon provides electricity to its residents through a small, city-owned and operated electric utility. However, a 2019 study from Concentric Energy Advisors found that small public utilities were comparatively inefficient when compared to larger co-ops or investor-owned utilities. Similar studies for decades have recommended that municipalities instead purchase electricity from these larger entities or get out of the business entirely. This is because of economies of scale, meaning that the larger the size of electricity operations, the lower the overall cost is of producing each megawatt of electricity. Think Cheaper by the Dozen, but for keeping the lights on.

Privatization can increase efficiency and expertise and provide public services at a lower cost. More than 86 percent of all electricity sold in Missouri is provided by a utility company or an electric co-op. In fact, Lebanon is the only city in Laclede County that has not already taken this route.

Cities nationwide, such as Eagle Mountain City, Utah (2015), Fort Wayne, Indiana (2011), and Readsboro, Vermont (2011) have privatized their municipal electric utilities in the past decade. These cities have used the divestments to fill budget holes, improve service, and decrease rates for residents. Lebanon officials should look at what worked for these and other cities and tailor their privatization process accordingly.

Lebanon’s electric utility equipment is valued at $14 million, but it is not known how much a sale would bring in. Lebanon residents could benefit from this money and sale in several ways. The city’s long-term public employee costs would be reduced, and the money could be used to finance any immediately needed public improvements, build a rainy-day fund, or finance a tax cut. As seen in other cities, this may also result in lower electricity prices or better services for residents.

Lebanon officials would make the deliberations as transparent as possible so citizens can observe. Adding the financial incentives of competition may be difficult due to Missouri’s monopolized electricity structure, but any deal should include a provision holding any new entity accountable if it does not meet quality-of-service and implementation expectations.

Lebanon officials and Laclede Electric will be studying the issue for the foreseeable future, and as more information emerges it will make evaluating the specifics of any deal easier. If the experience with privatization in other cities is any indication, Lebanon should consider taking advantage of this opportunity.

Crestwood TIF Commission Considers Redevelopment Plan with $17 Million in Giveaways

Posted on by David Stokes

The Crestwood TIF Commission is considering a proposal to redevelop the land that was once the Crestwood Mall. The plan includes a Dierbergs grocery store and multiple retail spaces that would be partially funded with $13.5 million from tax-increment financing and $3.5 million from a community improvement district. There is also a residential component of the development that will not include public funding. There is a TIF Commission public hearing on this proposal at 7 p.m. on June 17th, 2021.

David Stokes joined The McGraw Show on The Big 550 KTRS to discuss the project.

Let Expired Agricultural Tax Credits Stay That Way

Posted on by David Stokes

One of the better things to come from the 2021 Missouri legislative session was something that the legislature did NOT do: renew several agriculture-based Missouri tax credit programs. This is, of course, extremely concerning for the economic development officials who justify their jobs by the existence of such programs. Never mind the fact that these programs generally accomplish nothing and are an actively negative influence in most cases.

A Missouri Times article explains what the expired economic development tax credits are:

The New Generation Cooperative Incentive Tax Credit, Meat Processing Facility Investment Tax Credit, and Agricultural Product Utilization Contributor Tax Credit programs offered by the Missouri Agriculture and Small Business Development Authority (MASBDA) that sunset in 2021.

What kind of effect do they have? Well, that depends on whom you listen to. According to the Missouri Farm Bureau, the effects would have a larger impact than discovering a giant oil field in rural Missouri and turning Cuba, Paris, and Lebanon (MO) into the next Kuwait (note: there is no Missouri city named Kuwait). From a Farm Bureau commentary in favor of the programs (emphasis added):

The largest of these programs is the New Generation Cooperative Incentive. This tax credit helps investors draw in private investment for value-added processing. To date, $63 million in tax incentives have generated over $501 million in private investment.

For those of you keeping score at home, that statement claims an economic impact eight times the government investment. Whether you call it an economic multiplier, a cost-benefit analysis, or whatever, the claim that it generated an eightfold impact is absurd.  Even the Missouri state economic development agency makes much lower economic impact claims for this credit (and their claims are also almost certainly way too high). If you are asking yourself if an obscure Missouri state agency funded with other people’s money is capable of creating an economic return eight times the cost of the program, the answer is no, it isn’t.

Government officials cannot predict the future (which often makes the credits useless), and are often influenced by political calculations (which is what can turn the credits from useless to harmful). Missouri should let these tax credits remain dead, and the same thing goes for the film tax credit (wasteful), the low-income housing tax credit (rampantly abused by developers), and just about every state and local tax credit program we have.

Investment in rural Missouri is absolutely needed. State tax credit programs are not the way to do it.

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