Page 471 – Show-Me Institute

Outrageous: After Denying You Tax Cuts, State Officials Return Monday To Give Boeing One Instead

Posted on December 2, 2013May 5, 2026 by Patrick Ishmael

Governore [sic] Nixon is calling the legislature into special session, beginning at 4 o-clock Monday afternoon. He wants it to enact legislation that will let Missouri bid for Boeing’s new airliner factory.

Missouri is competing to be the site where Boeing will build its new 777x airliner.

Nixon says in his call that “building this next-generation commercial aircraft in Missouri would create thousands of jobs…and secure our position as a hub for advanced aerospace manufacturing.”

He’s asking for incentives legislation adding up to $150 million a year for large-scale aerospace projects under four state economic development programs.

This is the definition of cronyism. If we’re going to basically wipe out taxes for a single business, here’s a better idea: Instead of giving out massive special tax breaks to one company or project, how about we stop taxing the income of all businesses? And don’t stop there: eliminate the individual income tax and stop sponsoring special tax cuts like this one for just a handful of companies and well-connected individuals.

Will Boeing be picking up the per diems we have to pay the legislators during the special session and all the associated costs for their tax cut package? Asking rhetorically.

Missouri School Leaders Wrong On School Choice

Posted on December 2, 2013May 5, 2026 by James V. Shuls

In a carefully coordinated effort, Missouri school leaders have hatched a new plan to rehash old ideas. First, the Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis (CSD) issued a position paper that calls for stopping school choice and increasing funding for traditional public schools. Then, the Missouri Association of School Leaders (MASA) released its legislative platform, which lays out a plan to stop school choice through “administrative trickery.”

Each plan attempts to come across as fresh by sprinkling in new ideas. However, the intent of these plans is a simple rehash of an old idea — stop school choice.

The CSD position paper boldly states that “St. Louis area superintendents urge the state to move beyond providing choice options.” They claim that school choice doesn’t work. “In the private sector, choice does create competition in the marketplace. It works there. But is [Sic] does not work in public schools, at least not in Missouri.”

Can choice and competition improve nearly every aspect of our lives except for education? The evidence would suggest otherwise (and yes, there is evidence that choice is working in Missouri).

The Friedman Foundation published a report detailing the studies on private school choice programs. They reported that 11 of 12 “gold standard” studies of voucher programs find positive benefits for all or some students. They also reported that choice and competition have a positive impact on the traditional public schools. At least that was the case in 22 of the 23 studies that examined the issue. Not a single study has found that students are worse off when schools face competition.

Is it possible that choice and competition work in education in other states, but not in Missouri? Not likely.

In fact, a study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University found that Missouri charter schools produced significantly larger learning gains than the nearby public schools.

MASA and the CSD ignore the evidence because they want to stop school choice. Thus, their plans are simply a guise for the same policies that brought us to our current predicament. We don’t need more of the same. Kids need choices and schools need competition.

We Are Thankful For Data

Posted on November 28, 2013May 5, 2026 by Patrick Tuohey

Debate over public policy is rife with stories about individuals who will benefit or suffer from proposed legislation. It can be a difficult thing with which to wrestle. And because much of what is offered is anecdotal, it could be true and yet not at all representative of the impact of the regulation at hand.

Debate in Missouri about Medicaid, education, and taxation is filled with anecdotes that give an either incomplete or misleading picture of policy proposals. That is why we here at the Show-Me Institute love data. Spreadsheets may not make for an impressive photo opportunity, but data analysis is necessary if we are going to improve the lives of Missourians.

To that end, our colleague Michael Rathbone has been shepherding our new website: ShowMeData.org. This new interactive tool allows you to generate all sorts of data on property taxes, population, Gross State Product, labor force, employment, unemployment, and more over the years. And not just in Missouri but the entire country. For example, is it true when Missouri politicians complain that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is poaching people and jobs? This chart shows that Texas’ population has been growing for decades while Missouri’s remains stagnant. Want to research cigarette tax rates in Missouri and neighboring states? That’s here.

Should you be locked in a political discussion this holiday with that irascible brother-in-law, visit Show-Me Data for some valuable context. We’re all grateful for the stories of America’s greatness, now we have the data to back it up.

What Would A Free-Market Medicaid Reform Look Like?

Posted on November 27, 2013May 5, 2026 by Patrick Ishmael

With all the discussion about Medicaid reform, transformation, and (an unwise) expansion, it’s worthwhile to remind ourselves what “success” for both Medicaid patients and taxpayers should look like. Patients should have access to health care that can be tailored to their needs. Taxpayers should be able to rest assured that Medicaid dollars aren’t being wasted. Unfortunately, Medicaid is failing on both of these fronts, delivering poor health outcomes to enrollees and terrible results to taxpayers.

What would be a better way to deliver this care? Here are some ideas:

The state currently spends (roughly) between $3,000 and $5,000 on each child and adult enrolled in the Medicaid program. Split the current level of Medicaid spending into the equivalent of state-held health savings accounts (HSA) that the beneficiary controls. After the purchase of at least a catastrophic insurance plan, the enrollee could decide what additional health services he or she needs to spend money on, if any. Leftover money could be rolled over year to year, meaning beneficiaries wouldn’t feel compelled to use or lose those health dollars unnecessarily.

Give enrollees a reason to leave the Medicaid program on their own. If a Medicaid patient complies with the regulations of the program — high among them, to not use emergency room services unnecessarily — then the patient could take the bulk of the leftover money when he or she exits the program, either as an HSA or as a reduced amount in cash. Indeed, beneficiaries would have something to gain by leaving Medicaid.

Health insurance is insurance first, not a health plan. One of the few benefits found in an Oregon study on Medicaid was that enrollees felt financially secure after they joined the program. Not only can Medicaid reform of the nature described above provide that security, it can do it at a lower cost and with greater flexibility for the patient.

Sow the seeds of even wider, positive health care reforms. A market-based reform of the kind articulated here would inject thousands of cost-conscious consumers into the health care marketplace who are not only empowered to negotiate for the services they need, but have the incentive to negotiate.

That’s where I would start Medicaid’s reformation. You can call these ideas a free-market solution or a transformation, but most importantly, I think you could call it a vast improvement over what we have now. Medicaid needs to be reformed first and foremost, and failure to do so will hurt all of its stakeholders. Patients and taxpayers deserve better than the status quo; I think these proposals would help to move the reform discussion and the Medicaid program in the right direction.

Ballot Initiative Lets Motorists Off Hook

Posted on November 26, 2013May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

In Sunday’s Columbia Daily Tribune, my editorial, “Ballot Initiative Lets Motorists Off Hook,” made the case that user fees, and not a general sales tax, should pay for highways in Missouri.

A ballot initiative proposes to implement a general sales tax to raise money for critical infrastructure projects in the state. However, the lack of funding for highways is the result of a falling real gas tax and increasing vehicle fuel efficiency. Along with the lack of tolling, this has meant funding for highways is decreasing as the cost of repairs escalates. As a chart created from our new website Show-Me Data illustrates, it has been many years since Missouri raised its gasoline tax:

However, a sales tax unfairly burdens those who drive less and subsidizes the actions of those who drive more. This encourages overuse of the roads and more congestion in Missouri. If the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) needs more funds to maintain and expand highway infrastructure, raising the gas tax or implementing tolls is superior to sales tax in terms of both fairness and economic efficiency.

For more about transportation funding, read our writings about a “HOT” route for a proposed South Saint Louis County Connector, opposition to past road funding sales taxes, and changing the transportation paradigm in Missouri.

David Stokes Debates Sidney Watson About Obamacare

Posted on November 26, 2013May 5, 2026 by Darin Morley

David Stokes, policy analyst with the Show-Me Institute, and Sidney Watson, a member of the Center for Health Law Studies at Saint Louis University, debate the merits of Obamacare on NewsChannel 5 KSDK.

Ballot Initiative Lets Motorists Off Hook

Posted on November 25, 2013May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

As first appearing in the Columbia Daily Tribune on 24 November, 2013:

Imagine ordering the usual for dinner at your favorite restaurant. When the check arrives, you are surprised to find a $2 surcharge for “movie tickets.”

When you demand an explanation, the waiter says the local theaters were losing money. Moviegoers did not want to pay higher ticket prices, so to save the theaters, they decided to make restaurant patrons pay for their tickets.

If the waiter’s explanation seems outrageous, it might interest you to know a new ballot initiative uses the same logic to pay for transportation. The initiative, which the private group “Missourians for Safe Transportation and New Jobs” supports, proposes a 1 percent sales tax on all businesses for 10 years. Its purpose is to raise $8 billion for the cash-strapped Missouri Department of Transportation, or MoDOT, to use on transportation — mainly road — projects. MoDOT needs the cash because during the last decade its road construction costs have rapidly risen while gas tax revenues fell. In 2012, MoDOT’s expenditures outstripped its funding by more than $300 million. If something is not done, MoDOT might not have the funds to maintain, much less improve, more than 33,000 miles of state roads.

MoDOT might need money, but implementing a state sales tax is the wrong policy. The fundamental problem with MoDOT funding, which a sales tax would only exacerbate, is that people who use the roads are paying less than their fair share. With a sales tax, those who use public transportation, ride their bike to work or simply drive less end up subsidizing those who use roads more often. Aside from being fundamentally unfair, the policy incentivizes individuals to drive more and shop less, because road use is artificially cheap and shopping is artificially expensive. That behavior results in increased congestion and pollution.

The real solution to MoDOT’s funding problems is simple: Make drivers pay for the roads. Aside from the fairness issue, charging users for the amount of road used will discourage overuse of highways and create a sustainable funding structure for MoDOT. Faced with higher gas prices and tolls, people will drive less or opt for fuel-efficient vehicles. This reduces congestion, road degradation and pollution.

At 17 cents a gallon, Missouri has one of the lowest gas taxes in the country. This is not automatically a bad thing, but it is an issue when state road maintenance is underfunded. If Missouri simply raised its rate to adjust for the inflation since the tax was set in 1996, MoDOT calculated it would get additional revenues of more than $150 million per year.

Another option is to toll new or improved roads. Other states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, have low gas taxes, but they finance roads with toll revenue. Tolling Interstates 70 and 44, along with new bridges such as the proposed Washington, Mo., bridge over the Missouri River, could greatly defray project costs. Missouri could find financing for roads and bridges in the private sector by auctioning the right to build or operate those tollways.

Implementing a 1 percent sales tax would encourage congestion, incentivize pollution and unfairly burden those who drive less. MoDOT might need more funds, but a sales tax does more harm than good. Missouri should alter its constitution to create a sustainable transportation tax structure that makes economic sense and enshrines the concept of fairness.

Missouri makes the restaurant patron pay for his meal and the moviegoer pay for his theater ticket; it is time to make drivers pay for their roads.

Joseph Miller is a policy researcher at the Show-Me Institute, which promotes market solutions for Missouri public policy.

South County Connector Is Opportunity For Transportation Innovation

Posted on November 21, 2013May 5, 2026 by David Stokes

As first appearing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on November 21, 2013:

“Thinking outside of the box” is viewed positively, but how about “thinking outside of the lane”? Not so much. We all want drivers focused on the road. Ingenuity behind the wheel is rarely a good thing. However, innovation is good for roads planning and construction. There is room for new ideas in highway building, and Saint Louis County government has an excellent opportunity for creativity with the South County Connector.

The South County Connector Project is a new road designed to create more efficient north-south traffic flow between Clayton and South County. The project is needed and will improve the region’s transportation network. Just as important, it offers the county a great opportunity to finance the project in a creative manner that utilizes user fees, encourages carpooling, and benefits all drivers.

Saint Louis already exercises creativity in transportation engineering. Some examples include the reversible lanes on I-70 in the city and the wonderful jughandle design at Hanley, Eager, and I-64.

Our focus is on the financing and access; we will leave the details of the route and design to the engineers. We believe Saint Louis County should strongly consider building the South County Connector as the region’s first High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) route. HOT routes allow high-occupancy vehicles (HOV) free use of the road while charging a fee to solo drivers. Saint Louis County already funds its roads in a variety of ways, including dedicated transportation property and sales taxes along with state gas tax funds and federal grants. This would just add tolling to the mix. The Missouri constitution’s prohibition against tolling does not impose any legal limits because the South County Connector is a Saint Louis County project.

The South County Connector could have a moderately priced toll on express lanes between River Des Peres Blvd. and Hanley Road during rush hours only. The toll should be high enough to limit congestion while remaining low enough to attract traffic. There is no need for toll booths — the entire system could easily be automated and payable via transponders (e.g., EZ Pass) for regular users and license plate-based payments via cell phone for others (once you safely stop, of course). Importantly, free access for cars with multiple adults would incentivize carpooling, thereby limiting congestion during rush hour.

There is no illusion that collecting a toll would cover the entire expense of building/maintaining the South County Connector. A high toll is not necessary here. Rather, the South County Connector’s toll on its new express lanes (perhaps even reversible express lanes) should be low enough to attract essential traffic to the road. That way, even the people who choose to avoid the toll road benefit from all the commuters who do choose to drive it. For better or worse, this recommendation may limit the ability of private operators to finance and manage the project. However, county government or a private company could operate what we envision.

Toll roads have reduced congestion and been financially successful in other localities. An example is State Hwy. 550 in Texas, which will connect two major highways with a tollway outside of Brownsville. Local officials believe the highway will serve important transportation needs, and the toll’s estimated revenue of $1 million per year makes the $41 million price tag more manageable. In California, private developers constructed HOT lanes on SR-91 in Orange County. By transferring less essential travel to non-peak times and public transportation, Orange County tollways have reduced peak congestion by more than 25 percent on most roads. The SR-91 lanes have proven successful in reducing congestion and do not take any money from general transportation funds.

Saint Louis County can be a leader in encouraging carpooling, user fees, and creative highway design all in one project. These are not radical ideas. All of them have been implemented effectively elsewhere. High-Occupancy Toll routes are the best way to increase capacity while remaining fiscally responsible and reducing congestion. In this case, “thinking outside the lane” is exactly what Saint Louis County needs.

David Stokes is a policy analyst and Joseph Miller is a policy researcher at the Show-Me Institute, which promotes market solutions for Missouri public policy.

South County Connector Is Opportunity For Transportation Innovation

Posted on November 21, 2013May 5, 2026 by Joseph Miller

The Show-Me Institute has long supported market-based solutions to infrastructure projects in Missouri, including using tolls to pay for new highway projects throughout the state. This week, in an editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, we argued that the South County Connector should be Missouri’s first high-occupancy toll (HOT) road.

The South County Connector is a proposed route in Saint Louis County designed to ease north-south traffic congestion between South Saint Louis County and Clayton. Saint Louis County is responsible for this project, and is prepared to fund the road through property taxes, sales taxes, and gas tax funds. We suggest that Saint Louis County operate HOT express lanes on the connector in order to relieve congestion and help pay for the road. HOT lanes are express lanes that allow high-occupancy vehicles to use the lanes free while solo drivers pay a toll. This guarantees a free flow of traffic and generates revenue to pay for road construction and maintenance. HOT lanes have been successfully implemented in California and Virginia, and can serve Missouri as well.

For more on road funding in Missouri, read our other work about the possibility of tolling I-70 and transforming Missouri’s transportation funding paradigm.

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