If you would like to join with many other Missourians in discussing your opinion of growing deficits and rampant spending under both this administration and the previous one, you can go down to Kiener Plaza tonight at 6:30 PM to get your groove on. I made it to the previous one at the riverfront, but can’t make it tonight because of a board meeting. Otherwise, I would be there — and I don’t even drink tea.
Zoo-Museum Tax Bill Changes Make Good Idea Less Good
I liked Sen. Joan Bray’s original proposal to expand the St. Louis Zoo-Museum taxing district. I liked it because it gave taxpayers in neighboring counties a choice: institute the tax locally or pay an entrance fee. It got rid of the free riders, but didn’t mandate either option. Now, though, the tax expansion part has been removed and the proposal is just moving ahead as a typical new fee or tax.
The good news is that, in Sen. Bray’s own words, it is not likely to pass, and is really just there to get the discussion going, for which I applaud her. I am glad to participate in the discussion — hell, that’s what I do! For next legislative session, the proposal should include choices by counties as to whether they want to institute a tax or have their residents pay an admission fee. It should also allow for the expansion of the facilities supported by the tax so that any county adopting it can have one entity added to the district. Any new county should also be represented on the district’s board of director’s, as former St. Louis mayor and state Sen. Jim Conway said in the article:
Conway, a zoo board member, added that “something of this magnitude” needs to first be vetted by the institutions and “all the other civic leaders” to help build support.
How does Mr. Conway fit into my recent study of the number of elected officials in Missouri? When he was a senator, he quietly passed legislation making the medical examiner of St. Louis an appointed doctor rather than an elected official. I think we can all agree that large cities with large city problems should have medical examiners who are doctors — and not just some former state rep who ran for the position because he was term limited.
Cato-at-Liberty on Concealed Carry
I hadn’t seen this when I wrote about concealed carry earlier today. It’s commentary from David Rittgers of Cato about guns and college campuses.
The best sentence in the post: “There are no magical powers that accrue to a sworn officer.”
Restaurants and the Minimum Wage
The Post-Dispatch reports on a proposed minimum wage cap that would apply to tipped workers, like waiters in restaurants. The cap would keep their minimum wage where it is now, so that it wouldn’t rise with inflation.
A small increase in the minimum wage, paced with inflation, isn’t going to cause massive labor market inefficiencies — but there are downsides to a continually rising minimum wage nonetheless. One is that it gives the false impression that we’re helping poor people. Most poor people don’t earn the minimum wage. And many minimum-wage earners live in households that are not poor, or earn the minimum wage only temporarily. To illustrate, the server quoted at the end of the article is a Washington University graduate student, who undoubtedly will earn a higher wage once she completes her advanced degree.
There are other policies, such the Earned Income Tax Credit, that directly help poor people. Legislators would do well to cap the minimum wage and focus on policies that can work. If you still think tipped workers are getting a bad deal, give them larger tips!
Is Norm Macdonald Writing For the Kansas City Star Now?
I swear that if you read this article in the Star while imagining that you are Norm MacDonald impersonating Bob Dole, you will get a nice laugh out of it. It’s not a bad article, it just uses his name a lot — which Bob Dole used to do, too. At least, Norm made people think he did.
Government Pork: “In Oklahoma, Not Arizona, What Does it Matter?”
The annual Citizens Against Government Waste Pig Book is out for 2009. I have to guess this was a particularly fertile year for the authors, what with the entire District of Columbia becoming a gigantic printing press. If I needed a reminder (which I don’t actually need) as to why I was so proud to be one of John McCain’s county chairs last year (on my own time), then here it is. Arizona is dead last in government pork, and I think everything is going just as well there as in any other state. I know some of Arizona’s other officials deserve credit for this, too, especially Rep. Jeff Flake. As an aside, it was probably unfair for me to single out Oklahoma above, given that it’s ranked 44th, but, heh, the song says what it says.
Missouri is right where we usually are in things like this — in the middle of the pack. At least we are moving in the right direction, down from 24th to 26th. Sen. Claire McCaskill is probably the reason we are moving that direction, and hopefully we will continue to go further. It is interesting how three of the top four spots are held by entities other than the contiguous 48 states. And, yes, it is notable that there is a 51-spot difference between McCain and his erstwhile running mate — although, in Gov. Sarah Palin’s defense, this money comes from Washington D.C., not Juneau.
(Hat tip to Prime Buzz for the original link.)
Twitter and Government
As a follow-up to my last post on technology, I’m happy to point out this article about Missouri legislators using Twitter. They’re giving constituents updates on their activities and accepting ideas and questions in return.
The article mentions that legislators may run into trouble if they divulge classified information on Twitter or make libelous statements. That’s true, but those are potential problems any time politicians open their mouths. The technology isn’t to blame.
Welcome to College; Check Your Personal Liberties at the Door
I always enjoy Katy Steinmetz’s excellent columns, but I think she misses the target in this piece arguing against concealed carry at the University of Missouri–Columbia. Here’s my summary of her main points, with comments:
- It’s a bad idea to legislate based on rare occurrences like school shootings. We should not adopt a risky policy in hopes of averting unlikely disasters.
I agree completely that panic over freak events (like the birth of octuplets) can prompt the creation of ill-considered policies. This just isn’t one of those cases. Steinmetz compares allowing guns at MU to allowing concealed hand grenades as a defense against sharks on the beach; I think that’s a stretch. We don’t allow hand grenades other places for good reason, and it would be foolish to make an exception for beaches because we’re scared of the occasional shark. In the case of guns, Missouri does permit concealed carry across the state. The proposal would change the law for MU to make it like the law for other parts of Missouri — hardly an instance of singling out MU for a departure from the norm.
- People who carry concealed weapons aren’t always the knights-in-shining-armor they claim to be. Saying that permit holders are nice because they don’t engage in public brawls is faint praise.
The fact is, most states do allow concealed carry, and it hasn’t led to those public brawls critics said it would. Permit holders’ restraint may not be sufficient evidence of heroic virtue, but it does indicate that concealed carry isn’t so risky as Steinmetz fears.
- People don’t need to carry guns at MU because the campus is very safe. Concealed carry advocates haven’t demonstrated that there’s anything to gain from changing the law.
There is something to gain: The personal freedoms that apply in other parts of the state would be upheld at MU as well. Why should MU be different?
Ode to the MAP, From Edudiva
Edudiva comments on districts’ MAP test preparation in a post titled “Ode to the MAP.” The issue is not drilling students in facts and test-taking strategies, which most people associate with test prep, but the cheerleading, banana-feeding, and other last-ditch efforts to motivate students.
Other students were encouraged to write poetry about their feelings.
Standardized tests aren’t fun, and this poem creatively captures that feeling. But I’m amazed that students can harbor so much hatred for a test in elementary school that doesn’t take up much time, and the results of which won’t affect them one way or the other. Can you imagine Singaporean students writing poetry like that about the TIMSS in English class? (If you can, check out Two Million Minutes and think again.) I think there are two possible causes: Either schools are turning what should be a routine test into a traumatic event (unlikely, since lots of them give out candy and have pep rallies beforehand), or all the bribing and coaching is actually making students more anxious about the tests.
