Parking Is a Privilege in Saint Louis City

Posted on by Joseph Miller

                Parking at Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport (STL) can get expensive. Depending on the lot, the airport will charge anywhere from $7 to $23 dollars a day. The prospect of paying so much for airport parking is one reason why many of us will take a cab instead. But expensive parking isn’t a problem for the region’s taxicab regulators, nearly all of whom get free airport parking.

And taxicab commissioners aren’t the only ones. Last week, the Post-Dispatch reported that scores of current and former officials get free parking at Lambert, including former airport commissioners, elected officials, police brass, and industry representatives. According to Lambert Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, the free parking is a “courtesy.” However, the selective nature of this courtesy leaves open a number of questions. For instance, why honor the mayors of only three Saint Louis County cities? Why give a courtesy to one specific partner from an area law firm? Why do many taxicab commissioners receive free parking? Perhaps there are reasonable answers to these questions (among others), but left unexplained it looks just like another unjustified perk for political insiders.

To its credit, STL officials are planning on phasing out the free parking passes. But parking privilege is not just confined to Saint Louis’s airport. Last year, a city-commissioned parking study (performed to decide where new parking meters should go) found that the city allows any individual employed by the city or county, regardless of their position, to park for free at any metered spot. The city has no comprehensive list of authorized outstanding permits or rules determining which departments and which vehicles are eligible for permits. The study’s authors recommended limiting such permits to positions that require quick access to vehicles (like police officers or emergency response vehicles). Unfortunately, while the city is already well into the process of installing new meters to charge residents, the employee on-street parking policy has not been revised or even reviewed.

Most people understand that free parking is not a right. But it should not be a privilege either, handed out on an ad-hoc basis to entrenched civic insiders. 

By the way, the one member of the Taxicab Commission who does not enjoy free airport parking is Chris Sommers. He is also the only member of the Commission who vocally supports ridesharing in Saint Louis. Go figure. 

Saint Louis Property Taxes, Part 4: All Together Now

Posted on by Joseph Miller

In the first three blog posts in this series (here, here, and here), we have seen how Saint Louis City’s property tax base is significantly curtailed because much of the city’s land is owned by governments and nonprofits, which pay little or no real property tax. Many other properties also receive special real property tax breaks, like TIF and Chapter 353 abatements, further reducing the number of parcels paying the city’s full property tax rate of $7.5850 per $100 assessed value (with a $1.64 commercial surcharge).

While the share of the city’s property that either gets tax subsidies, qualifies as a non-profit, or is owned by the government is large individually, looking at these issues together shows the scale of the problems confronting Saint Louis’s tax base. In fact, about half of the city’s property by area is either tax exempt or receives tax breaks. Property tax exceptions are basically the rule. The map below demonstrates this:

As we discussed in previous posts, these areas include some of Saint Louis’s most economically important and profitable institutions, such as BJC Healthcare, Washington University in Saint Louis, Busch Stadium, the Eighth Circuit Court, and IKEA. In total, around 40% of the city’s property by value either is tax exempt or receives special tax breaks.

Who is left paying the full property tax rate? For the most part, residential areas on the city’s South (and especially Southwest) side have fewer exempt properties and tax breaks. In terms of value, utilities, casinos, manufacturing and distribution companies, as well as a handful of large businesses downtown appear to pay full property tax rates. However, as the map below shows, when it comes to parcels paying full real property tax levels, the city is hollowed out:

The next post on this issue will discuss some the negative results of this reduced real property tax base, as well as strategies for improving the base. 

Washington University Faculty Oppose Public Dollars for Stadium; Planners Promise Brew Pub

Posted on by Joseph Miller

As we have mentioned many times before, economists are virtually unanimous in their agreement that publicly funded sports stadiums are bad investments for cities. They do not generate additional economic growth, promote urban revitalization, or result in increased tax collections. This broad consensus is being reiterated by the faculty of Washington University in Saint Louis.

Last week, Student Life, a WashU college paper, published a story about the Rams stadium. For the story, the author interviewed five WashU faculty from different disciplines. The faculty spoke nearly unanimously against using public money to fund the stadium. Here are some of the faculty’s comments, as reported in the article, the Longest Con:

“It’s really hard to see this as overall a good idea. It’s going to be very expensive…That’s not a very good way to spend government money.”—Glenn MacDonald, an economics professor in the Olin Business School

“We’ve known since the mid-’70s that sports teams don’t bring fast economic benefits, certainly nothing that offsets the kinds of credits they’re getting…Ten times a year, 12 times a year, you get a huge influx of people in, [but] that’s it.”—Sunita Parikh, an associate professor of political science

“What it does is it destroys the area so it vanquishes the blight that it identifies by just knocking everything down,” and “decimates the existing urban character.”—Michael Allen, a University College coordinator and American culture studies lecturer

“I think it’s pretty clear to anyone that spends any time here…that this town’s civic sporting identity is Cardinals first, second, third, fourth, fifth, down through 10, then Blues probably and then Rams. So they’re already the low man on the totem pole… I think it’s kind of silly that some people in cities feel like they need to measure their city by how many teams from the Big 4 leagues they have”—Noah Cohan, a recent Ph.D. and adjunct instructor in English who studies the relation of sports fandom to identity and politics,

The only WashU faculty member interviewed who supported the stadium plan, Rich Ryffel (senior lecturer of finance in the business school who helped finance the Edward Jones Dome), admitted a stadium was “not a good public investment. In other words, if the public puts in a dollar, they’re not going to get a dollar out of it.”

In other news, stadium proponents are touting the final initial design (which I guess is kind of like jumbo shrimp?) of a planned stadium. It will even have a new brew pub. Will policymakers heed the advice of experts or opt for beer and circuses? 

Minimum Wage Harms the Workers It’s Meant to Help

Posted on by John Wright

If you grab lunch at Sister Cities in the Dutchtown neighborhood of St. Louis, you’re likely to be greeted by Javion Johnson (going by JJ), who works the front of the popular Cajun and BBQ restaurant several days a week. JJ is 22 years old, lives in the neighborhood, and wants to pursue his passions for art and food. He didn’t start working in the front of the restaurant, however; he got the job when the co-owner, Pam Melton, needed a dishwasher in a pinch.

JJ first stopped into the restaurant after smelling the food. “I could smell the smoke from Louisiana.” JJ tells me. [Louisiana is a street several blocks from Sister Cities.]

When JJ and his girlfriend went inside to check out the place, Pam needed someone to help out in the back of the house. She asked him if he’d like to make some extra money. “I was like, sure, why not?”

After starting washing the dishes, JJ quickly worked his way to the front of the house. Pam told him, “You have a good smile. You have a good personality. I need you in the front. You can’t be nice to the dishes anymore. They’re clean now.”

Now JJ seats customers, takes orders, takes care of checks, and works as a back bar man. Sister Cities put up a chalk board, so JJ taught himself chalk art from a Youtube channel. He now does much of the signage for Sister Cities.

JJ’s story is a common one. When I was a teen I got a restaurant job under similar circumstances; the manager needed someone to wash dishes. I got my foot in the door cleaning, bussing, and earning minimum wage, but soon moved up to a position where I took orders and prepared food.

Minimum wage mandates are so dangerous because they threaten people like JJ who don’t already have formal work experience. If Pam had been forced to pay a starting wage of $11, she probably wouldn’t have taken a risk on someone without previous restaurant experience. If you remove the bottom rung of the economic ladder, it’s harder for people to get the skills they need to move up.

Minimum wage laws can also keep businesses from operating altogether. “I’m afraid I’ll ultimately have to close my doors,” Pam tells me when I ask her about the impact of the minimum wage hike. If Pam has to shut down Sister Cities or move out of the city, JJ will be out a job.

Zoos, Taxes, and Admissions Charges

Posted on by Joseph Miller

A recent editorial in the Post-Dispatch by former Clayton Mayor Ben Uchitelle once again set off a debate on how the region funds the Zoo Museum District. Mr. Uchitelle recommended the implementation of entrance fees. The board that runs the district says there are no plans to begin charging admission, with one member stating that he’d rather see property taxes go up in Saint Charles and Jefferson County instead.

Why the need for entrance fees or higher taxes? The district’s institutions, like the zoo, art museum, and history museum, face mounting expenses. For example, just from 2011 to 2014, the art museum’s operating losses grew from $20.2 million to $25.5 million. The zoo’s expenses have also been rising steadily. Add to that ambitious plans for capital improvements (like a gondola over Interstate 64/US 40), and the desire for more revenue is understandable.

The Zoo Museum District depends heavily on property tax revenue. The district’s museums receive the vast majority of their support via property taxes. The zoo, even with private supporters and charges for services, still relies on tax revenue for almost 40 percent of its budget. That property tax, (8 cents per hundred dollars of assessed value in Saint Louis City and County) is maxed out.

Supporters of reform want to broaden the district’s revenue base. They argue it is unfair that Saint Louis City and County taxpayers bear the entire burden of supporting these institutions. Only an estimated 39 percent of zoo visitors come from Saint Louis City and County. Twelve percent are from Saint Charles and Jefferson County, and 37 percent are visiting from outside the Saint Louis area altogether. Mr. Uchitelle’s proposal to make zoo and museum goers pay some sort of entrance fee would allow visitors to jointly invest in these destinations. After all, admission fees are the norm at other popular institutions in Saint Louis, like the Cardinals (obviously), the Botanical Garden, and even the Jewel Box. In other cities, zoos (including the country’s most visited) and museums charge entrance fees without losing their appeal.

Still, to many the idea that zoo or museum improvements should be paid by those who use them is an anathema. They argue that residents at large, regardless of whether they enjoy or approve of the institutions, should have to ensure zoo visitors always get free admission. And because some residents of Saint Charles County and Jefferson County use the zoo, the “fair” method of increasing revenue would be to charge all the residents of Saint Charles and Jefferson County.

There is nothing wrong with putting the question on the ballot in neighboring counties, but convincing residents in Saint Charles and Jefferson County to pay for a luxury hotel and gondolas in Saint Louis City via local property taxes is going to be a hard a sell, “fairness” aside. If the zoo really needs more money for large-scale improvements, perhaps they should take the idea of fairness to its logical conclusion and raise the money from people who actually visit, wherever they might come from. 

Are Missouri Students Ready for College?

Posted on by Michael Q. McShane

Piggybacking off of Brittany Wagner’s post on ACT results, I wanted to direct your attention to the ACT’s recently released college readiness report on Missouri’s Class of 2015. It has numerous interesting data points on how well Missouri’s most recent crop of graduates performed. Let’s look at a few that stand out.

Perfection!

The report shows that 31 Missouri students scored a perfect 36 on the entire test. Within individual tests, 197 students scored perfect on the English section, 108 scored perfect in math, 368 scored perfect in reading, and 289 scored perfect in science.

College Readiness

ACT sets a “college readiness” benchmark on its exams that (they claim) correlates to a 50 percent chance of a B or higher or a 75 percent chance of a C or higher in the first-year college course in that subject. For English, it’s an 18 (out of 36), for math and reading it’s a 22, and for science it’s a 23.

Across the class of 2015, 71 percent of Missouri students scored college-ready in English, 44 percent scored college-ready in math, 51 did so in reading, and 42 percent cleared the bar in science.

Unfortunately, those groups weren’t always overlapping, because in total, only 30 percent of the class of 2015 scored college-ready in all four tested subjects.

If that wasn’t bad enough, breaking down the scores by racial groups shows even worse performance. While 34 percent of white students and 43 percent of Asian American students scored college-ready in all four subjects, only 20 percent of Hispanic students and 6 percent of African American students did.

Everywhere in Missouri, we have room to grow.

Course Access

The ACT also collects information from test takers on the courses that they have taken.

Probably the most eye-catching figure to me was the finding that 6 percent of the students who took the ACT in the class of 2015 took fewer than 3 years of math in high school. Not surprisingly, only 9 percent of those students were ready for college math. (For those students who took 3 or more years of math, 54 percent were college-ready.) The report also shows that 17 percent of the class of 2015 took fewer than 3 years of natural science courses. Preparing students for the 21st Century means preparation in math and science, and in too many places the courses simply aren’t there.

The findings from this report are a challenge to Missouri to step up its game. We won’t be an engine of economic growth, a vibrant cultural center, or a flourishing democracy if so few of our students are prepared for higher-level schooling. We have to do better.

Missouri Mayors and the Minimum Wage

Posted on by Patrick Tuohey

Kansas City Mayor Sly James and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay recently called for a statewide minimum wage increase in Missouri when efforts to do so in their own cities met with resistance.

Their media release includes the following from Mayor James:

Workers in our cities and across the entire state work at one, two, or sometimes even three jobs, but they still cannot earn enough to provide for themselves and their families. This injustice creates a burden on state and city resources and stalls economic activity in Missouri. While we weren’t able to implement a local ordinance to raise the minimum wage in Kansas City, my commitment to pursuing this policy change has not wavered.

Not to be outdone, Mayor Slay discussed the statewide implications:

A living wage rewards work and alleviates taxpayers from the burden generated by employers who pay too little and whose employees must rely on government subsidies to fill the gaps created by the current minimum wage. Not only would a higher minimum wage benefit employers of our cities by attracting the best workforces, but also I believe that a higher statewide minimum wage would help Missouri attract the best workers in the region.

Kansas City and St. Louis have some of the highest taxes in the region. Both cities tax food, one of the most regressive forms of taxation and the most damaging to the poor. As we've written previously, not only does Kansas City levy regressive sales taxes, but its poor areas actually have a higher rate of sales taxes than wealthier areas. While some may argue that an equitable tax structure should broaden the base, what’s clear is that these tax policies are not written with any concern for the working poor. In fact, both cities also saddle workers with an additional 1% earnings tax, a tax imposed on the first dollar earned. There are no exemptions to spare the poor. And if a low-skilled worker in Kansas City is able to get a job in a restaurant, the city requires that they pay a food-handlers fee, something almost unheard of in the rest of the country. 

Both cities' public school districts suffer because the mayors and tax increment financing (TIF) commissions are eager to redirect property taxes to wealthy developers and away from the classrooms that would otherwise get the funds. Developers take the money and use it to build in the nice parts of town, away from the poor and legitimately blighted neighborhoods of Kansas City's East Side and St. Louis' North Side. Because of the disincentives of high city taxes and low city services, the city governments give out massive subsidies to businesses in the hope that they’ll stick around. 

While it's nice that the Mayors take time away from doggedly pursuing such "touristy frou frou" as streetcars, convention hotels, and airport terminals to consider the needs of workers, it is not enough. The need for sound economic policies in Kansas City and St. Louis requires a more serious approach. If mayors want to be advocates for the poor, they should focus on running their cities effectively and efficiently, rather than passing the buck in the form of wage controls. After all, increasing the minimum wage will likely hurt the very people it is intended to help.

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