That title might not be the best choice of words, but let’s move on to the topic. Yesterday, the Kansas City City Council defeated a proposal we have been following closely, to consider privatizing the two Kansas City airports. I commend the four officials who voted in favor of it for their willingness to think outside of the runway.
A Blogger Reports on Our Luncheon in Springfield
The Shifting Gears Blog has a great writeup of our luncheon in Springfield earlier this week. Please check it out.
Final Blow for CWIP Legislation
CWIP has been the subject of several previous articles and blog entries, both here at the Show-Me Institute and elsewhere, so I won’t use this entry to rehash the issue.
KMOX reports that controversy over proposed CWIP legislation, which would have supported the construction of an AmerenUE nuclear power plant expansion, has reached its final episode today. State lawmakers did not round up enough support to pass the constitutional amendment that would have been needed to move the new plant construction forward. Altogether, this was a not-so-surprising conclusion for a bill surrounded by a stream of publicity that, many people felt, raised more questions than answers.
Walking on … Overcast Skies?
Two significant amendments to an expansion of the Sunshine Law have recently come under debate. The first, sponsored by Rep. Jake Zimmerman (D-Olivette), required that the open records law would apply to all public officials. This failed to pass, by a small margin. The second seeks to close internal investigation records for police officers. Arguments about the latter revolve around the the tradeoffs between protecting bad officers on one hand, versus the potential for tarnishing the names of those wrongly accused.
The bill itself is a positive step in transparency, implementing harsher fines for those who fail to comply with sunshine laws and increasing the required delay between announcements of important public meetings and the actual commencement of those meetings.
Two Moves Forward on Privatization and Consolidation
Larry Williams, treasurer of St. Louis city, is moving ahead with outsourcing of parking meter maintenance and collections. Thanks to the St. Louis Business Journal for its story about this. As I understand it, this is different from the fiasco in Chicago, because the city is maintaining all the police powers that come with enforcement, etc. This new St. Louis plan is really more “outsourcing” than “privatization,” which I think is good. Regular readers might remember that I usually don’t support full privatization when it comes to areas involving the police powers of the state.
In Kansas City, the Star reports that the city is going forward with its support of a regional jail. Cities and counties sharing services to get the best value for taxpayers is always good government. I’ll remind readers once again that the idea of a regional jail has worked very well in St. Louis County. It is interesting that a private jail placed a bid on housing the prisoners, but I think the city council has a valid point that it’s important to keep the detainees — many of whom are likely serving short sentences — near their families. It’s great that the private operators were allowed to make a bid, though. That in and of itself is important. However, the city is still going to save a large amount of money by using the Jackson County facility:
City officials say they also support the move to save $1 million in the upcoming city budget and avoid millions more in capital expenses to upgrade the aging MCI.
Good news for taxpayers on both sides of the state.
Less Evil, But Still Evil
Another update on the red light camera discussion comes to light by means of a compromise (link via Combest). The House Transportation Committee rescinded requirements for municipalities to install red light cameras, and eliminated detailed provisions regarding photographic verification. Contrary to an earlier proposition, the bill no longer specifies that a driver caught by a red light camera would not have points added to his/her license. Fees for offenders would be capped at $75, except for violators in Springfield, who will pay $100.
The provisions to the unpopular bill make an attempt to reclaim some of the personal privacy that is lost when officials operate red light cameras — which inherently infringe upon personal rights. It is inefficient to create dense legislative provisions to limit the scope of operation of these red light cameras, rather than just getting rid of them altogether. I suppose it can be considered a battle won in the ongoing red light camera war.
Chinese Language in Public Schools
It’s unusual for traditional public schools to teach languages through full-time immersion, but some are trying to jazz up their language departments with a wider variety of language courses. Today, Valerie Schremp Hahn of The Grade blogs about Chinese language teaching in Bowling Green and Clayton. I’m curious where the Chinese teacher got this number:
Wu Williams, who is the type of person to bubble with enthusiasm over most anything she does, was especially excited about today’s visit. She told the students that by the year 2015, about 750,000 high school students will be taking Chinese language courses.
Whatever the exact statistics, interest in teaching Asian languages is definitely increasing. For more on schools and languages, see my op-ed about languages in charter schools.
So True
This 2 Million Minutes blog post is right on the money. It contains a clip of the middle-class protest song “Mad in America,” and explains why the ideas embodied in the song are false. (I didn’t know there even was such a thing as a middle-class protest song. If you want to learn more, the lyrics, as well as commentary from activists, are here.)
“Mad in America” tells the story of a hardworking baker who moved to the United States for employment opportunities several decades ago. Now, his grandchildren are losing their jobs because businesses are hiring Asians who will work for less.
Bob Compton of 2 Million Minutes reacts:
Lacking an understanding of how competitive advantages must be upgraded over time with more education, constant innovation and personal creativity, the song simply laments reality – that ideas, jobs and capital are mobile.
And while that mobility is more pronounced now because of computers, cell phones, and the Internet, it has always been there. After all, the baker in the song didn’t stay in his native Finland — he came to America, where he competed with Americans and earned a low wage! The opening of the song undermines its message. “Mad in America” implies that it’s bad for jobs to go offshore, while immigration to the United States is fine. The website with the lyrics further emphasizes that its campaign is not about U.S. immigration policy. But what does it matter whether the competition comes to your job or your job goes to the competition? Either way, if someone is willing to do your work for less money, you’re in trouble.
It should be noted that workers can avoid this problem to some extent if they do a better job than anyone else. I realize this may not be quite so inspirational as A Message to Garcia, but for example, Delta decided to bring its customer service back to the United States because customers had trouble communicating with Indians. Businesses look at more than dollar amounts when they make decisions; they also care about quality. Of course, in a bad recession, even the best workers suffer. To quote General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, “We are living through history, and I don’t mean that in a positive sense.”
I love Compton’s post, but I’m confused by one of his comments. He contrasts the U.S. economy of a century ago with the economy today:
We were the cheap laborers with the strong work ethic, the desire for a better life for our children, the commitment to building schools for compulsory education.
We still have compulsory education, and it hasn’t prevented the outsourcing problem. In fact, 2 Million Minutes is constantly pointing out our education system’s failures.
That quibble aside, it’s a great post and I highly recommend reading it.
Now, This Is Local Government to Get Excited About!
For people who write about local government for think tank blogs, the separation of St. Louis County and city is a tremendously interesting issue. Mayor Francis Slay broached the subject in his inaugural address yesterday, and Combest has rounded up the coverage in the Beacon and the ACC. The most important thing is to keep the question focused on whether the city should re-enter the county as the 92nd municipality. Ideas such as a Nashville-like grand merger of city and county into a unigov are unnecessary and impossible, whereas a simple re-entry is more feasible and would have plenty of positive effects.
I commend Mayor Slay for bringing this issue up again. As I said in my recent study of Missouri government, I think it would be very beneficial for our area if this occurred. The primary effect it would have on county residents would be a tax cut — nothing more and nothing less. The move would temporarily increase taxes on city taxpayers, which should eventually be offset (largely) by overall scale efficiencies and cuts in the city tax rate as the county takes over certain services. The real benefit would be in good government and long-term finances, as significant numbers of patronage jobs in the city’s various “county” offices would be merged into civil-service positions with the county, or eliminated entirely. Patronage benefits political parties, not citizens — and, yes, I already did commend City Treasurer Larry Williams for his cost-cutting moves of a few weeks ago.
Much more on this to come in the future.
