Lee’s Summit EEZ: A Solution In Search Of A Problem

Posted on by David Stokes

As published in Lee’s Summit Journal:

In 2006 and again in 2010, Money Magazine cited Lee’s Summit as one of the 100 Best Cities in the United States. The Lee’s Summit Chamber of Commerce boasts on its website: “Lee’s Summit is an ideal place to live and work, providing a desirable lifestyle that everyone can enjoy — high-quality, affordable housing in safe neighborhoods endowed with fine schools and excellent health care facilities.”

So why in the world is the Lee’s Summit City Council rushing to adopt an economic development program aimed at blighting large swaths of the city?

There is only one possible answer: The city council has been bitten by the same parasitical EEZ bug (Enhanced Enterprise Zone) that has attached itself to other cities and counties across Missouri.

In fact, almost a third of our state has been officially declared “blighted” as a result of the widespread use of EEZs, TIFs (Tax Increment Financing), TDDs (Transportation Development Districts), and other such programs that combine local subsidies for commercial development with the use of eminent domain — enabling developers to force residents out of their homes and small business owners out of their shops and offices.

On April 11, we presented testimony to the city council on the efficacy — or, more accurately, the inefficacy — of Enterprise Zones in Missouri. The Show-Me Institute had recently conducted a study comparing the economic performance of two groups: (1) eight Missouri counties that employed Enterprise Zones, and (2) 12 neighboring and economically similar counties that did not. We found that economic growth in the two groups was almost identical.

In other words, there was no evidence that Enterprise Zones had any positive impact on economic growth or employment. They seemed to be a waste of time and money.

Our statements to the Lee’s Summit City Council made this perfectly clear, and none of the economic development officials, city staff, or consultants at the meeting made an effort to argue otherwise.

Yet it was a clear that most members of the city council, along with the consultants and development staff, had already made up their minds: They wanted to move ahead as quickly as possible in setting up an EEZ.

One reason for the rush is the fear that the 2010 Census numbers, which are still being finalized, will show that poverty and unemployment rates in Lee’s Summit have dropped since the previous Census — which could have the effect of making Lee’s Summit ineligible for the subsidies from the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED).

Not that Lee’s Summit was any kind of an economic basket case 10 years earlier. Based on the 2000 Census, the median income for a family in Lee’s Summit was $70,702, or close to double the median family income for the state as a whole.

Nor does Lee’s Summit suffer from a lack of growth. Between 2000 and 2010, the population of Lee’s Summit grew from 70,700 people to 91,364 — an increase of 29 percent.

But neither prosperity nor rapid growth has dampened the enthusiasm of some city council members at the thought of spending some easy money.

On the night that we testified, one member of the city council argued that because the DED is giving the money away, Lee’s Summit might just as well take it. The proposed EEZ for Lee’s Summit is a particularly egregious example of throwing away taxpayer money for no good cause — in promoting a solution for a problem that does not exist.

Patrick Tuohey is the western Missouri field manager and David Stokes is a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute, which promotes market solutions for Missouri public policy.

Standards And Students Thrive In A Free Market

Posted on by James V. Shuls

Last night, I conducted an experiment to test the impact of the Common Core State Standards. When my kids were asleep, I placed a copy of the standards under their pillows. I was hopeful that they would be “college- and career-ready” when they woke up, but to my dismay, they had not learned anything from the standards.

You might not be too surprised about the results of my experiment because you know, as do I, that standards do not teach kids; parents and teachers teach kids. That is part of the reason that state and national standards have had very little effect in improving student achievement.

For standards to have any effect, they have to change the behavior of teachers. The only way to accomplish that is with heavy-handed government coercion and intrusion into school systems through test-based accountability. These accountability systems restrict the freedom of local schools and teachers to effectively meet the needs of their unique students.

It is not that we should not have standards, it is that one set of standards centrally imposed does more harm than good. Absent state or national standards, there would still be rigorous content standards for students. As Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute writes, “standards are ubiquitous in free markets.”

Proponents of state or national standards might say “math is math, it shouldn’t matter where you learn it.” That is true in the sense that 2 + 2 always equals 4. But it is not true in the sense that we have discovered the exact right sequence or method of teaching math. On this, there is considerable disagreement.

In a free market, schools would still have standards; officials would just have more latitude to choose the standards for their school. Parents would also have more options in a free market to choose the school that they believe is the best fit for them. Choice is the best method of accountability.

McCluskey sums up the argument very well: “Only a free market can produce the mix of high standards, accountability, and flexibility that is essential to achieving optimal educational outcomes.”

We need to stop trying to standardize education and start trying to personalize education.

MIT Study Cautions Small Community Airport Expansion

Posted on by Kacie Barnes (Galbraith)

Columbia and Kansas City have been busy planning airport expansions and hoping to attract new service to their cities. A new study by the MIT International Center for Air Transportation suggests this might not be such a great idea.

The headline? The near future of all air service is looking grim. Airlines continue to consolidate service at their largest hubs, consolidate with each other, and will continue further reductions at small community airports.

Columbia has felt this decline over the past several months, and the final Frontier Airlines flight from Columbia took off for Orlando, Fla., on Monday. Columbia is not alone. Data in the MIT study shows that Missouri airports, along with almost every other airport in the country, have lost service over the past five years.

This data shows us that the fate of air travel is not dependent on how shiny your airport is. Airlines have shifted away from capacity expansion because it was not a profitable strategy. They will continue to seek ways to maximize profits; unfortunately, small- and medium-sized airports are disproportionally affected in the process.

Standards-Based Reform Lacks Evidence

Posted on by James V. Shuls

This past weekend, I was featured prominently in a story by Elisa Crouch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the Common Core State Standards.

Crouch summarized my position on content standards like this: “Shuls of the Show-Me Institute would prefer parents and schools to set their own standards, rather than states.” She also quoted me as saying, “Ultimately, there’s absolutely no evidence that content standards improve education.” Both of these are true, but they deserve a little more explanation. In this post, I will address the evidence on content standards.

Proponents of national standards often point to some of the top-performing countries and note that they have national standards. These proponents often fail to point out that some countries that perform better than us do not have national standards and many who perform worse than us do have national standards. We could just as easily point to those countries at the bottom and say, “look, national standards don’t work.”

Even at the state level, the evidence that rigorous standards improve student achievement is very weak. The Fordham Institute, one of the biggest supporters of the Common Core, has issued grades for state standards for some time now. Using these grades, the Brookings Institution examined the correlation between the rigor of each state’s standards and performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The authors concluded that there is no relationship between standards and performance. Moreover, they predict that the Common Core will have very little impact on student achievement:

What effect will the Common Core have on national achievement? The analysis presented here suggests very little impact. The quality of the Common Core standards is currently being hotly debated, but the quality of past curriculum standards has been unrelated to achievement. The rigor of performance standards — how high the bar is set for proficiency — has also been unrelated to achievement.

Believing that rigorous standards will increase student achievement may be a fine theory, but it simply has not panned out in practice. There are several reasons for this, which I will address in my next post. I will also explain why I think parents and schools could do a better job of setting standards than the government.

Tax Rates: How Missouri Really Stacks Up

Posted on by Michael Rathbone

With the passage of the “Broad-Based Tax Relief Act of 2013,” opponents of tax cuts are wasting no time blasting it. One of their chief claims is that if tax rates are so important to economic growth, then Missouri should be booming because of our already (supposedly) low tax rates.

Does Missouri really have low tax rates? The truth is, it kind of depends. Missouri has higher tax rates than its neighbors in some areas and lower rates in others. This matters because not all taxes have an equal impact on a state’s economic growth. Income taxes harm an economy more than a sales tax does. Thus, all other things being equal, a 7 percent sales tax rate would be less damaging to a state’s economy than a 7 percent top income tax rate. Missouri has a higher individual income tax rate than most of its neighbors. On the other hand, its state  sales tax rate is lower than most of its neighbors.

Tax cuts are not everything. With Missouri’s income tax rates higher than most of its neighbors, there is a real need for it to stay competitive. Missouri cannot afford to do nothing. The “Broad-Based Tax Relief Act of 2013” is not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction, and contrary to what its opponents say, it is necessary.

Kansas City’s Power And Flight District

Posted on by Patrick Tuohey

Think voters in Kansas City will get a say on whether the city issues billions in bonds to build a new airport terminal? Think again, and be prepared to foot the bill.

Kansas City’s recent past is full of rosy development projects that did not pan out; KCP&L (Kansas City Power & Light) is chief among them. As a result, the city — and the taxpayers who fund city operations — are on the hook for about $13 million each year. Funds used to support the project are being diverted from other worthy causes.

Aviation Department Administrator Mark VanLoh says: “One common misconception the city must overcome: People think Kansas City will have to raise taxes to pay for a new terminal. It will not.” Maybe, maybe not.

Let’s review airport revenue. Dave Helling wrote in the Kansas City Star about how a new terminal would struggle to raise revenue:

There aren’t a lot of ways airport users could generate that kind of revenue. Ticket sales are already taxed, and air travel here is slumping. The airlines could pay more in rent, but other airports would pounce if the cost at KCI gets too high.

Indeed, VanLoh has admitted in press interviews that airports in Branson, Mo., and Wichita, Kan., are already taking market share from Kansas City because they are paying airlines to land there. Increasing rents or landing fees are not a realistic option.

If the airport is unlikely to be able to generate the revenue needed to support those bonds, can’t we turn to the federal government for help? VanLoh says “no,” telling the Star that large-scale federal participation in the project faces headwinds.

If the city were to issue $1.5 billion in revenue bonds in order to pay for the new terminal, it certainly would require a vote of the people. (Note that the $1.5 billion they are now considering is already a 25 percent increase over where we started, at $1.2 billion.) But what of Kansas City’s 2nd District City Councilman Ed Ford’s assertion in November that the project is “going to happen regardless of whether our citizens want it to happen”?

It turns out that not all bonds require voter approval. These bonds, known as Special Obligation Bonds, are not considered debt in the same way as other bonds and therefore require no public vote. Kansas City uses them all the time, and in fact is preparing to issue some this year to pay for the streetcar. Special Obligation Bonds were created to address a city’s immediate need — say, a broken water main — when it does not have the resources to fix it or the time to seek a vote. Kansas City issued two such bonds in 2012 amounting to $75 million that funded computer upgrades for the city’s revenue collectors, garages, and the refinancing of the ill-fated Citadel Plaza project.

Unlike revenue bonds, which do require a public vote, these bonds are normally secured by property. In this case, the Aviation Department may secure the $1.5 billion debt with the airport itself. While the city may not have to raise taxes, as VanLoh says, it is well within reason that the city will have to cover those bond payments from the general fund just like we cover KCP&L.

Welcome to the Kansas City Power and Flight District.

The Ayes Have It: Volunteer Health Services Act Passes

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

The Volunteer Health Services Act has passed in the Missouri Legislature. If the governor signs it into law, the legislation would allow out-of-state medical professionals to easily provide free, charitable care to Missouri’s neediest — an activity that Missouri license law currently complicates. It is an issue I have talked about a lot, both this year and last. I am glad the bill gained the legislature’s approval.

Some bills are legitimately tough calls, but the Volunteer Health Services Act is, I think, a no-brainer. Missouri should be letting people help people, and in this case, the helpers are highly trained for the purpose. The bill’s passage is a great call. Kudos, Missouri Legislature.

The Ayes Have It: Worker Speech Rights Bill Passes

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

In April, I testified before the Missouri Legislature about the importance of reaffirming the free speech rights of government employees. Senate Bill 29, which changes how union dues are collected and are used for political purposes, just passed the Missouri House with an 85-69 vote. The legislation’s next stop is the governor’s desk.

Currently, Missouri requires public union employees to opt-out of having dues money removed from their paychecks that could be used for political objectives with which the employee may disagree. Under the reform, union members would presumptively keep those dollars unless they opt-in to paying for the union’s political activities. That is a better system that supports employees’ free speech rights.

I am glad to see it get through the legislature, and I look forward to seeing whether the governor agrees that union members’ money is their money first, not the union’s. Kudos, Missouri Legislature.

The Ayes Have It: Income Tax Cut Passes

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

The Missouri Legislature has passed arguably the state’s biggest tax reform in years, the “Broad-Based Tax Relief Act of 2013,” and sent it to the governor for his signature. Today, the Missouri House passed the Senate Substitute for House Bill 253 with a 103-51 vote. The bill reduces the individual income tax slightly, but more importantly, it cuts the corporate income tax by almost half over the course of about 10 years and the tax on other businesses by half over five.

As we have discussed — especially in the past few months —  a state focus on business taxation reform is well-warranted, not only because taxes on businesses tend to negatively affect growth, but because Missouri risks being left behind by its pro-growth neighbors if it does not act. I expect Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon will sign the bill, but even if he vetoes it, there may be sufficient support in both the state House and Senate to override him. Whatever the path to its final enactment, this tax reform is the right thing for a state in need of an economic course change.

As the original HB 253 demonstrated, there was considerable support for deep business tax cuts for Missouri’s companies. That bill would have cut taxes in half for all businesses over about a five-year period, including the taxes on C-Corporations — an excellent, literature-responsive idea. To be clear, the corporate income tax reduction schedule the legislature passed should have matched that for pass-through entities at five years, not 10.

Yet, that should not take away from the fact that this tax relief measure is a good first step toward instituting even better tax policy in Missouri in the years ahead. Kudos to all who worked to get this over the finish line.

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