Being There Is Not The Same as Being Better

Posted on by James V. Shuls

On November 7, I was invited to present my paper — The Salary Straitjacket — to the Missouri Mathematics and Science Coalition in Jefferson City, Missouri. Now you can listen to the audio of the presentation and see my slides:

About the paper: Imagine a school in which the highest prize for academic achievement went to the student who had been there the longest. Though it seems ridiculous to reward students in this manner, this is exactly how school districts reward teachers — by longevity. Teachers by and large are paid on a single salary schedule. These schedules not only fail to reward teachers based on their quality, but they fail to recognize that teaching different subjects and grade levels requires different skill sets and that those particular skill sets are in varying demand in the marketplace. For instance, there are reportedly 3.1 jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for every one unemployed person in Missouri. In comparison, there is only 1 non-STEM job for every 3.7 unemployed people. This means teachers with strong backgrounds in math and science may have more, higher-paying options outside of teaching. This is a reality we must address.

There’s This Thing . . . It’s Called The Internet

Posted on by Kacie Barnes (Galbraith)

One of my friends complained to me the other day that he could not find a website for a new business after Googling for a minute or two. He quickly decided that it had to be a scam — who could possibly own a business and not have a website?

Like my friend, most people use the Internet as their primary source for information. We expect to find everything we want with a few clicks, whether it is information on a new business, yoga videos for your cat, or a trip to the virtual banana label museum. Or more plausibly, a search for your city council’s upcoming meeting agenda. Because the majority of us use the Internet daily, it is frustrating when we cannot find something we are looking for.

It is especially frustrating when the information we cannot find is supposed to be public. Jefferson City just announced that the city will switch to an electronic record-keeping system to make city information more available to the general public. Our capital city already provides a good amount of information on its website, but I applaud the city for valuing accessibility of public information and seeking ways to provide it more readily. There are many municipalities and counties that do not prove this to be a priority. For example, Scott County does not even post its budget online.

To me, not providing budget information online is like getting in your car at 10 p.m. and saying, “Ugh, you know I really just don’t feel like turning on my headlights right now.” It is something that is so simple, takes little time or effort, and would benefit everyone.

More municipalities need to join the 21st century and provide public information on their websites. The Illinois Policy Institute provides a 10-point transparency checklist as a good starting point. People have a right to know about their government and the easiest way to give them information is on the Internet. In the meantime, you can use Show-Me Sunshine and Show-Me Living to dig into public documents and state government spending.

VIDEO: The New York Times Covers the Kansas City Border War

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

This weekend, The New York Times kicked off a three-part investigative series titled “The United States of Subsidies.” The series highlights the problems that tax incentives, state and local, pose to government budgets and the barriers they may erect to genuine and sustainable economic growth. The Times‘ series is especially notable for Missourians because the authors have begun it with a special focus on the economic Border War that has embroiled the Kansas City region for years. The Times‘ video report featuring the governors of both Missouri and Kansas is embedded below and is a must-see for Missourians who are worried not only about the state’s tax credit problem, but about making sure the state is economically competitive.

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal wrote a similar piece about the incentives handed out for the Power & Light District in downtown Kansas City. We at the Show-Me Institute have long-criticized the wasteful use of incentives in this state and around Kansas City. David Stokes has heavily criticized the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and has continuously advocated for statewide TIF reform. Last week, Michael Rathbone and I put forward a proposal to make Missouri more competitive and to mitigate the use of tax credits in Missouri. Soon we will publish an essay about the tax on pass-through income in the state, a topic about which Brenda Talent and I wrote in the Kansas City Star last month. Indeed, a lot can and will happen in the state over the next few months as the legislative session opens. Missourians who want to move the state forward do not have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines.

Show Me The Money!

Posted on by James V. Shuls

In my Oct. 11 post, I created a chart showing how much spending on K-12 public education changed from 1992 to 2008, compared to the change in student achievement.

The Children’s Educational Alliance of Missouri took that chart and made this interesting infographic. It displays clearly that spending on education, in inflation adjusted dollars, has grown dramatically, while achievement has not.

Baumol_1992_2008

If anyone asks, how do we improve education in Missouri? The answer cannot simply be more money. That is a method we have been trying and it has been proven that it does not work. What we need is to reinvent public education by equipping parents with options and allowing schools to be innovative.

Show-Me Institute Presents: Cutting The Ties That Bind

Posted on by Michael Rathbone

Today, the Show-Me Institute released a new essay, “Cutting the Ties That Bind: End Missouri’s Corporate Income Tax,” which yours truly and my colleague Patrick Ishmael wrote. The paper proposes eliminating the state’s corporate income tax and capping or eliminating economic development tax credits in order to ensure no losses to state revenue. This will help Missouri be more attractive to businesses because it will get rid of a destructive tax without forcing cuts to services. Give it a look.

Show-Me Discusses the Medicaid Expansion With Media All Across State

Posted on by Patrick Ishmael

It has been a busy few days in the Show-Me office. Yesterday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced that his upcoming fiscal year 2014 budget includes an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program, a move that, if adopted, would take the state a step closer to full of implementation the Affordable Care Act, or “ObamaCare.” Below are the FOX2/KPLR11 and NBC’s Newschannel 5 (KSDK) Medicaid stories for which I was interviewed. Interviews also aired on KMOX in Saint Louis and Columbia’s The Eagle radio station this morning; if made available online, I will post those here. I am also scheduled to appear on KMOX Monday afternoon and KCMO radio Tuesday morning, so if I can get my hands on those segments, I will post them next week.

And Over In The House

Posted on by Michael Rathbone

I previously blogged about the Missouri Senate’s stated agenda for the upcoming legislative session that starts in January. Over in the House, Speaker Tim Jones (R-Saint Louis County) plans to focus on business interests. Speaker Jones has stated, “Whether that means cutting taxes or implementing incentives, we’re going to have everything on the table and we’re going to do what’s best for Missouri businesses, while we protect our Missouri taxpayers.” While that sounds encouraging, I do have a few words of caution.

First, being pro-business is not the same as being pro-free market. Being pro-business can devolve into being pro-some businesses and anti-other businesses. For example, my colleague Kacie Galbraith wrote about the Columbia Regional Airport and the various incentive schemes city officials are cooking up to entice American Airlines to offer service there, at the expense of Delta. The proper response would have been lowering costs and burdens for ALL airlines and letting the free market determine which, if any airlines, might serve the Columbia region.

The Speaker has assured the taxpayers that there will not be anything like “Aerotropolis” coming down the pipe. That is great to hear. Yet, when Speaker Jones talks about “implementing incentives,” I get nervous. The biggest incentive for businesses to locate in Missouri would be a favorable environment for ALL businesses. The incentives that legislators talk about usually mean a new tax subsidy, taking money from one group of people and giving it to another.

I hope the House moves in the tax cut direction and away from the business incentive direction. I have blogged (a lot) about the benefits of eliminating the corporate income tax and the taxes on pass-through entities. As I mentioned before, the Senate seems disposed to pass some sort of income tax cut. If the House follows suit, it is possible to enact some meaningful reform.

TIF Menace Growing in Missouri

Posted on by David Stokes

Like monsters in a horror film, Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts keep coming back larger and more rapacious. Officials in Columbia and Joplin are now both considering huge TIF districts that will encompass major parts of their cities. (I wrote about Joplin’s TIF here, and we can all admit this is a different circumstance than most TIF plans in Missouri.)

The Columbia plan is thrilling to me in that its supporters do not even bother trying to couch their intentions. TIF was passed originally as a way to revive blighted communities. But, from the beginning, it was used to subsidize retail establishments. Now, in Columbia, they are basically admitting it is a tool of progressive urban planning; using other people’s (and other government’s) money to get what they want. Doubt me? Take this letter in support of a new TIF district (scroll to end) in Columbia from Rosalie Gerding with the Downtown Leadership Council:

Developers who come forward with plans that will accomplish the designs proposed in the report could be encouraged to apply for TIF funds.

Here, TIF is blatantly proposed as a carrot for urban planning, not a way to revitalize a depressed area. Of course, because downtown Columbia is not the least bit depressed, that makes sense in a weird way. Like being wrong by 359 degrees almost makes you right.

There are more unsettling aspects to this plan. Eminent domain abuse goes hand-in-hand with TIF, so it should be frightening for Columbia residents to read this line from the letter (emphasis added):

Without incentives in place, we continue to run the risk that projects we don’t necessarily want will go up in the very spots that we have targeted for higher-use development.

My translation, “We need to use other people’s money to subsidize our friends’ developments because we can’t allow the free market to determine what happens in downtown Columbia.”

The plan that the Columbia City Council accepted last week (see p. 35) clearly states they want to turn all of downtown into a huge TIF district. (To be fair, they just accepted the plan, they did not pass the TIF.) I continue to find it amazing that a great city like Columbia wants to imitate the failed examples of Kansas City and Saint Louis by passing more and more TIFs and other subsidies (EEZs) to encourage things that have been happening without subsidies. Then again, maybe the market forces were making plans that the “urban planners” did not like, and Lord knows you cannot allow that to happen.

I cannot commend Boone County Assessor Tom Schauwecker enough for his continued fight on this issue.

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