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A Closer Look at the Effects of a $15 Minimum Wage for Missouri

Posted on July 5, 2024January 13, 2026 by Grace Hearne

Who wouldn’t want to get a pay raise? Everyone would enjoy higher wages—but what if a raise meant fewer hours or even unemployment? Missouri voters will likely decide on an increase in the minimum wage that will phase in from $12.30 to $15.00 per hour by 2026. If the ballot measure is passed, the minimum wage will increase by $1.45 to $13.75 on January 1, 2025, and by $1.25 to $15.00 on January 1, 2026. While raising the minimum wage may seem beneficial for low-income workers, once businesses fully adjust to the minimum wage increase, low-income and low-skilled workers are likely to be worse off.

Similar to Missouri’s potential $15.00 minimum wage, Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance passed in 2014 phased in an increasing minimum wage in the City of Seattle from the state’s $9.47 minimum to $11 in 2014, $13 in 2016, and $15 in 2017. A 2017 study at the University of Washington found that the increase to $15 an hour resulted in low-skilled workers experiencing a reduction in hours worked or even job loss. This decrease in hours worked for low-skilled workers resulted in “a net loss of $74 per month.” A pay cut of $74 per month can have a significant impact on low-income workers. The study found that employers opted to replace low-skilled workers with higher-skilled workers who could perform the job more effectively and therefore warrant a wage equivalent to the new minimum wage.

Seattle’s experiences are just one example of how a minimum wage increase negatively affects low-income workers. California recently increased its minimum wage to $20 for fast-food workers, resulting in many workers suffering from a loss of income. Mark Harmsworth, director of the Small Business Center at the Washington Policy Center, said:

Sometimes, instead of a salary bump, many workers instead find their work hours cut or their jobs eliminated completely. For some employees, if they fall below a minimum hour threshold required for benefits, they lose benefits too.

Increasing the minimum wage is a misguided way to try and help workers. If policymakers and voters want to assist low-income workers, then increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit would be a better approach.

St. Charles County Council Approves Zoning Change for New Housing Development

Posted on July 3, 2024January 13, 2026 by Amanda Unverferth

On Monday, June 25, the St. Charles County Council passed Bill No. 5300. The bill rezones a total of just over 135 acres of land adjacent to the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area from an agricultural district to residential districts of varying minimum lot sizes.

The request to amend the zoning map was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in May. The request was submitted in order to accommodate the development of a new subdivision, the Highlands at Busch Wildlife. The bill is revised from an earlier proposal called Tall Tree. The Tall Tree zoning amendment request, which was denied by the Planning and Zoning Commission in June 2023, was a 556-lot proposal on about 355 acres. The new development is for only 120 lots, cutting down the number of homes in the development by over 75% while reducing acreage by around 60% compared to the original proposal.

The St. Charles County Council chambers were filled with disapproval from St. Charles residents and nearby O’Fallon neighbors. Residents expressed concerns about negative environmental impacts (see the Missouri Department of Conservation’s comments on p. 42–43 of the amendment request) and increased traffic along state highway DD. Nonetheless, the bill passed by a vote of 5–2. Interestingly, the councilman of District 3—the district where the Highlands at Busch Wildlife will be built—voted in favor of the bill. Following the bill’s passage, a portion of the dissenting public in attendance left the room, and some even shouted their displeasure at the council while doing so. It is not uncommon for current residents of a community to be opposed to new development in their area. However, is this new development really something the citizens of St. Charles and the surrounding communities should be so upset about?

A 2018 paper titled Supply Skepticism: Housing Supply and Affordability from NYU’s Furman Center addresses many of the concerns commonly expressed by residents about new development. The paper discusses how development—at any price point—can help improve overall housing affordability. Furthermore, development can also increase productivity and signal that the given community is a place where people want to live. This does not necessarily suggest that development should always happen anytime or anyplace. However, restricting housing supply is associated with numerous problems including increased racial segregation, decreased mobility, and slower economic growth.

While some St. Charles citizens may be dismayed by the passage of Bill No. 5300, hopefully the benefits of increased housing supply will become more evident over time. Who knows—maybe other communities around the state will even look to St. Charles as an example of how allowing the market supply of housing to move more freely can help meet the needs of their community.

Springfield Wants to Be Darn Sure Its Sales Tax Rate Doesn’t Ever Go Down

Posted on July 2, 2024January 13, 2026 by David Stokes

About fifteen years ago, Springfield voters approved a new sales tax to address its substantially underfunded police and fire pension system. (Show-Me Institute analysts wrote a lot about this issue.)

Fast forward to 2024, and that sales tax is up for renewal. However, because the pension system is much better funded now, city leaders don’t want to renew the 3/4 cent sales tax as it is. That would generate more money for the pension than it needs.

So Springfield leaders put a commission together to come up with ways to alter the tax revenue distributions before it goes to voters in November.

A Kinsley Gaffe is when politicians accidentally say something truthful they didn’t mean to. (This is the second such gaffe worth highlighting in Missouri in the past few months.) In this case, the statement is filtered through the media, I admit, but the reporter must have got the gist of it from local leaders:

The tax will sunset at the end of March 2025, hence why the city has been adamant to put a replacement tax on the November ballot to avoid a lapse in the sales tax that local shoppers would feel. (emphasis added)

A lapse that voters would feel? Meaning a tax reduction Springfield residents may actually like? Dear Lord, we certainly can’t have that. If they like the reductions, they may not vote to increase the tax when we want them to, Oh, the humanity.

The new proposal is for voters to keep a 1/4 cent sales tax for public safety—which can still include pension costs—and change the rest of the tax (1/2 cent) to fund “comprehensive plan capital and parks projects and neighborhood and community initiatives.” (More on that issue later.)

Springfield still has a defined-benefit pension plan for its public safety employees. It should have switched to a defined-contribution plan years ago. At least the city, according to the article, closed the old plan to new members several years ago and, presumably, replaced it with a less generous plan for new hires. That’s progress, but a defined-contribution plan for Springfield employees would have been better for the taxpayers and the city. Throwing tax dollars at the pension fund appears to have worked for now, but further change is needed. As former Show-Me Institute Chief Economist Joe Haslag wrote about the Springfield pension situation years ago: “The existing approach got Springfield into this situation. Some reform is needed to avoid the same problems in the future.”

How Fast Should Government Grow with Elias Tsapelas

Posted on July 2, 2024January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

Susan Pendergrass speaks with Elias Tsapelas, Director of State Budget and Fiscal Policy at the Show-Me Institute, about his recent report, “Missouri’s Hancock Amendment: A Primer.” They discuss the historical context and significance of the Hancock Amendment, its impact on Missouri’s fiscal policy, what can be done to improve protections for Missouri taxpayers, and more.

Read the full report here.

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Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

What’s Up, SLUP?

Posted on July 1, 2024January 13, 2026 by Amanda Unverferth

Recently, my colleague Patrick Tuohey wrote about the new Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook (HSAP). In his blog post, he discusses how this guide—when used with a free-market perspective—can be useful in increasing the housing supply and improving the condition of existing homes in certain cities.

This playbook has been released at a convenient time for the City of St. Louis—the city is currently overhauling its Strategic Land Use Plan (SLUP). The current SLUP was adopted in 2005 and has seen 23 amendments since. It suffices to say that the document is dated. The city intends for the new plan to be adopted by the planning commission by the end of 2024.

There are some benefits of having strategies in place to guide future land use and development of a city. However, cities also must be careful about avoiding central planning. The city outlines its guiding values for the SLUP, the first of which is “quality of life.” Are there ideas in the HSAP guide that St. Louis could use to realize this goal?

To improve quality of life, the goal should be to make the city a place where people want to live, work, and build. Increasing the supply and diversity of housing available can help work toward this goal. How can this be achieved? By simplifying the regulatory landscape. While the SLUP will not change the zoning code on its own, it will inform future updates to the zoning code, and these updates should incentivize development and lower costs, not the opposite.

Specifically, two potential reforms are decreasing or eliminating parking minimums and authorizing accessory dwellings. Parking minimums are mandates that require a set number of parking spaces in a new development. Many U.S. cities are reducing their parking minimums and finding that decreases the cost of new housing and offers other benefits, including making their cities more walkable. Accessory dwelling units (ADUs)—additional living spaces or dwellings on the lot of a larger home—are also gaining traction. Take for example the City of Seattle, which has allowed ADUs since 2019 and is experiencing strong growth in this form of housing. Both changes have the potential to increase the housing supply to meet residents’ needs and support the city’s goal of increasing quality of life.

Anyone can provide public input regarding the City of St. Louis’s plan by completing a survey on the SLUP website. This is an opportunity for residents to emphasize the importance of not stamping out market forces that will spur housing supply. Hopefully, the plan will advocate simplifying codes and decreasing costs.

Climbing Down the “Fiscal Cliff” with Stéphane Lavertu

Posted on June 28, 2024January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

In this episode, Susan Pendergrass speaks with Stephane Lavertu, Professor at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University and Senior Research Fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, about the so-called “fiscal cliff” in public education funding. They discuss the idea that returning to pre-pandemic funding levels constitutes a crisis, the implications of declining student enrollment, whether maintaining or increasing current funding levels is truly necessary, and more.

Stéphane Lavertu’s teaching and research focus on public administration, political economy, public policy analysis and evaluation, and education policy and governance.

He has a doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin, a master’s degree in education from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from The Ohio State University.

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Produced by Show-Me Opportunity

The Border War Is Bad Because It Hurts Us

Posted on June 26, 2024January 13, 2026 by Patrick Tuohey

The day after the Kansas Legislature voted to use sales tax and revenue (STAR) bonds to lure the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals across the border to the Sunflower State, Kansas City, Missouri’s mayor took to the radio to threaten retaliation. He hinted that Kansas City, Missouri could lure Kansas manufacturing plants, corporate headquarters, or even the Sporting KC soccer club into Missouri.

Governor Parson said that Missouri would “do everything we can” to keep the teams in Missouri.

This is dangerous. The reason state and municipal leaders welcomed a truce in the economic Border War was not because of the damage it inflicted on others—it was because of the damage it inflicted on their own cities and states. When signing the 2019 truce, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly noted:

In the past decade, folks in Kansas and Missouri had to watch and wonder why economic development forces in each state spent huge sums — together, some $330 million — to pull businesses a few miles across the border, and only to create an illusion of success with practically no economic gain.

Parson agreed, saying, “Sometimes common sense does prevail. Because you don’t have to be a scientist to figure out [the Border War] was a bad deal for both states.”

Just because Governor Kelly is violating her own executive order does not mean it is in anyone else’s benefit to re-arm and ride to the sounds of guns.

The only ones who benefit from such skirmishes are the corporations that pit the two states and their various municipalities against each other. A prime example was Applebee’s, which crossed State Line Road repeatedly, adding no economic benefit to either side, but racking up sweet taxpayer-funded incentives for itself each time.

All that Kansas did the other day was provide the Chiefs and Royals leverage to play the states against each other—potentially increasing the costs to taxpayers in both states. Should the Missouri side present a package that is competitive, the teams will very likely go back to Kansas and ask it to increase its offer. This is how negotiations work. Will Kansas, now that it has gotten its developers, municipal leaders, and residents excited by the prospect of hosting the two teams, be able to say no? Or will it sweeten the deal, just a little bit, to meet this “once in a lifetime” opportunity?

Anyone can see how this quickly becomes a race to the bottom.

Many Kansans are happy to have Jackson County foot the bill—and the hassle—of dealing with the Hunts and the Shermans. Conversely, there are plenty of Missourians who wouldn’t be bothered if Kansas decided to pick up the tab—and the bond risk—of hosting those teams and all their demands of taxpayers. But responding in kind to Governor Kelly’s gambit is not good for Missouri.

The only way to grow an economy is for government at all levels to be good at the basics. Maintain your infrastructure, keep the public safe, protect property rights, and do so as effectively and efficiently as possible. Missouri leaders ought to keep that in mind.

Who’s in Charge Here?

Posted on June 25, 2024January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

In the last several years, 10 states have passed universal school choice programs that allow all families to take their state education funding to the public or private school of their choice, including home schools. What many of these states have in common is governors committed to improving education in their state.

Governor Reynolds of Iowa publicly declared her dedication to elevating education for every student and actively built a coalition to make it happen. Governor Sanders of Arkansas, in her first year in office, unveiled an education bill that she called “the most substantial overhaul of our state’s education system” in the history of the state. Governor Ivey of Alabama said last February that “passing an education savings account bill that works for families and for Alabama is my number one legislative priority.” Massive education reform happened in these states because governors led the way, much like Governor Jeb Bush of Florida and Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee did decades earlier.

That’s why I found it odd that the president of the state board of education in Missouri said that the outgoing commissioner of education deserves credit for surviving a governor’s attempt to shape education in the state, claiming she never “cracked under the pressure.” The former governor (Greitens) attempted to reconfigure the board of education into a more reform-minded board that could then bring in a commissioner willing to innovate. Ultimately, the strategy failed because that governor was forced out of office. But could, and should, a governor be able to challenge the education status quo in their state? Of course.

The current powers that be in Missouri public education disagree: “The idea that you had a governor that tried to influence the State Board of Education, tried to influence the selection of a commissioner, that wanted change for no other reason than political expediency.” He didn’t finish the sentence, but I assume he found the idea to be scandalous.

We will be electing a new governor this November. Let’s hope that whoever that person is, they will resist the entitlement of the existing power structure of public education in the state and lead the charge for students and families instead.

Homelessness and Housing Policy with Judge Glock

Posted on June 25, 2024January 13, 2026 by Susan Pendergrass

In this episode, Susan Pendergrass speaks with Judge Glock, the Director of Research and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a contributing editor at City Journal, about the ongoing attempts to address homelessness through housing policy. They explore the effectiveness of current housing initiatives, the challenges in implementing effective policy solutions, innovative approaches to reduce homelessness, and more.

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Produced by Show-Me Opportunity