No Experience? No Problem!

Posted on by Josh Smith

There’s an interesting post on the Freakonomics blog about the computer game SimCity and how it relates to a new web application from the Kansas Department of Transportation.

In SimCity, you play the role of the concerned and active government planner, taxing, zoning, and highway-building your citizens into a better tomorrow. When I was younger I found playing the game very stressful; it was tough to balance an attractive tax rate that will grow the population with satisfactory services, such as sufficient power plants, highways, railways, and appropriate balances of residential, commercial, and industrial zones.

A few years ago, I realized that the reason the game was not fun for me is that I don’t and can’t know what the people really want. I just do the best I can with the limited information I get from them. If they claim to want more industrial zones, the question becomes: “Do they demand industrial zones?” If they do, and it’s efficient to provide them, someone will start some heavy industry plants, hopefully where the people want, or he will be competed out of business by a superiorly located competitor. That’s what the market is all about: many competing actors, each with their own share of limited information, discovering they can reach remarkably efficient arrangements without a central organizing plan (or planner).

The T-Link Calculator is your chance to experience the confounding, hapless charade that is central planning. Try to make predictions about things as varied and likely-outside-your-expertise as “Will existing revenue sources grow slower or faster than they have historically?” and “Will KDOT’s non-construction expenditures grow faster or slower than they have historically?” I suppose someone has to make these tough decisions for all of us, and here’s your chance to be that planner.

I don’t mean to pick on Kansas in particular. Its funding calculator is actually a fun tool that performs the task it was perhaps meant to — namely, it shows the people of Kansas and elsewhere which sorts of decisions go into the roads they use every day. It is a relic of static thinking, however. Roads, like shoes, chicken dinners, and haircuts, are an example of something that can be well handled by private enterprise. Here’s some reading, if you’re interested.

The Reality of Tax Appropriation Via Bailout Sets In

Posted on by Ryan Davisson

Chrysler’s full-page thank you advertisement to American taxpayers has provoked an unintended reaction.

As for the price of the ad, which ran in USA Today and the Wall Street Journal (among others), Judson Berger with Foxnews.com found that “A full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal runs between $206,000 and $264,000, and a full-page ad in USA Today runs between $112,000 and $217,000.” So, there is little surprise that the advertisement has spurred some critical remarks.

On the same topic, Citigroup’s $400 million contract to name the newly built Mets stadium “Citi Field” came into question as Republicans Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo suggested the stadium’s name be modified to “Citi/Taxpayer Field” in order to pay homage to those who kept the company afloat.

The FDIC recently clarified that transparency concerning federal bailout money is a requirement rather than a suggestion. Three major companies in Missouri that received financial aid include: Blue Valley Bancorp (Kansas City), which received $21.75 million; Hawthorne Bancshares Inc. (Lee’s Summit), which accepted $30.26 million; and Enterprise Financial Services Corp. (Saint Louis), which accepted $35 million.

New Columbia Education Blog!

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

I always love to announce new education blogs focusing on Missouri issues, but this time the pleasure’s bittersweet because it means the closing of Class Notes. Jonathon Braden will write the Columbia Daily Tribune’s new education blog, to be called Homeroom. Janese Heavin begins blogging at Capitol Notes, and, from a glance at the first page of Homeroom, it looks like she’s continuing to discuss education there as well — but now in the comments section, like the rest of us.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Homeroom.

MoDOT Needs Mo’ Money

Posted on by David Stokes

I promise you that is the last time I am going to use a version of that line. Before I go any further, I want to give a nod to Jonathan in Jeff City, who loves the blog and reads it every day. I won’t get him in trouble by printing his full name or position, but he’ll know who I mean when he reads this. (Not that it would really get him into any trouble, but it’s fun to pretend it would.)

Combest had a nice link yesterday to a Missourinet story about MoDOT Director Pete Rahn’s talk with legislators. The great part about the presentation is its inclusion of notions that would have been almost unthinkable for Missouri just 10 years ago. Many people would probably recoil at the fee for vehicle miles traveled, but I don’t mind it so much — provided it replaces existing taxes (as opposed to just raising new ones), and provided it’s done as part of an annual inspection, and does not involve GPS tracking of your car and where it goes. The idea is worth considering, as are toll roads and public-private partnerships in transportation. It is great for our state that Director Rahn has been such a promoter of new thinking for Missouri.

How They Do Things in Kansas City

Posted on by David Stokes

The Star has the goods on the latest disputes in the KC mayor’s office. I’ll let the story speak for itself, because commenting on political squabbles isn’t really our role. But this can serve as a jumping-off point for a brief discussion of the government structure in KC.

The mayoral positions for Kansas City and Saint Louis are two of the weakest, structurally, of any large city in the country. (I want to emphasize that I mean the structure of the positions, not the people holding those offices, now or in the past.) Kansas City is one of the largest cities in the country with a full-out city manager system, which is more common in mid-size cities and suburbs. The mayor is really just first among equals on the City Council, and the right to determine who sits on and chairs which committees is probably the strongest lever that the position holds. That’s why you see articles and disputes like the one in the Star today.

Saint Louis has no city manager, but the mayor’s power is dramatically checked by a powerful City Council and 10 other citywide elected officials. The mayor of Saint Louis is really first among equals on the city’s Board of Estimate & Apportionment, the committee of three that approves major issues on top of council approval. In many ways, the city functions like a bicameral legislature, and the Board of Estimate & Apportionment serves as a Senate to the council’s House.

In both cities, the bully pulpit of the mayoral position is as valuable as any structural power they hold. When people want answers, they go to the mayor rather than to a council member or other city official. Leveraging that bully pulpit into political power is the trick for occupants of both offices.

Contract Schools

Posted on by Dave Roland

Years ago, the General Assembly approved a law that would allow public school districts to make deals with nearby private schools in order to see that certain students had the best educational environments for their particular needs. This program is a great idea, but as of right now it is only used in very, very limited circumstances.

In my latest op-ed, which ran yesterday in the Columbia Daily Tribune, I point out that the state could help schools and cut costs simply by expanding on this basic idea and allowing school districts to contract for some of their students to be educated at cheaper schools in the area. Check it out, and take advantage of the comments section below to let me know what you think.

Why the SCHIP Might Go Down

Posted on by Ryan Davisson

Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill (289-139) to expand funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The bill is predicted to increase funding to SCHIP by $32 billion over a period of five years.

SCHIP, created in 1997, is the biggest public health insurance program since the creation of Medicaid and is targeted to insure children that come from households that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford private health insurance.

A 61-cent tax increase on cigarettes, cigars, rolling papers, chewing tobacco and related products is supposed to fund the expansion of the program. This may not be a reliable funding source, however. Since 1964, the number of adult smokers in the United States has decreased by approximately 50 percent. A Kansas City Community Health Assessment released in 2006 reported that overall tobacco use in Missouri, for all ages, is expected to continue this decline. The same report noted, “Studies have shown that a 10% increase in the price of cigarettes reduces smoking by 7% for youth and consumption by 4% in adults.” This impact could be magnified after the passage of a tax increase as large as the current bill proposes.

It is possible that legislators have overlooked the number of smokers who may quit or find other ways of avoiding the tax — by purchasing cigarettes online, for example. An even greater cause for concern is the fact that in some cases (such as in Kansas), Medicaid covers the cost of tobacco counseling for quitters. Congress may be counting on revenues that have the possibility of turning into additional expenses. In addition, a Heartland Institute letter to Congress voices concern about the increased financial pressure that such a tax increase would bring for small businesses, “which often lean on tobacco sales to stay in business.”

Steve Voeller of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club joins other economic groups in his concern that an expansionary program is being funded by a declining source of tax revenue. Regardless of one’s level of support for increased government funding of health care coverage for uninsured children, long-term sustainability of the program should come into consideration.

Incentives in School

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

It’s happened at last: some high school courses now factor students’ performance on state exams into their final grades.

Districts have been understandably frustrated when students shrug off state assessments. To a district, low MAP scores can mean anything from a bad reputation to lost accreditation; to students, they meant nothing — until now.

There are potential drawbacks to a system in which students from many different schools take the same final. On the other hand, seniors taking the same Advanced Placement course are evaluated by the same test. And AP courses are usually considered the most rigorous high school courses, so I don’t follow this logic:

“There is that pitfall of ‘I’m only going to teach to this level of the test’ rather than ‘let’s make this a rigorous course,'” said Sara Torres, a supervisory director with the Science Teachers of Missouri.

If the state exam assumes a low level of knowledge, that shouldn’t prevent teachers from going beyond that level and adding detail when they teach.

Still, this move is not necessarily reason to celebrate, because it could take away from schools’ initiative in developing their own assessment methods.

The Peaceful Transfer of Power

Posted on by Clovis Ouangraoua

It’s official: Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States of America. The first African-American president in the history of this great country was sworn in, in a lavish ceremony in front of nearly 2 million people. In his speech, he laid out his goals for the country’s next four years — but the great winner yesterday was democracy.

As one commentator mentioned while I watched the live coverage, “By the end of the day, former President Bush will become George Bush, citizen, and Barack Obama, citizen, President Obama — and all in the name of the Constitution. …” Obama himself said, three days ago, that “the transition of power is a symbol of democracy’s strength.”

It’s remarkable to me how most Americans go about their business, and take for granted what is still viewed in certain parts of the world as quite a challenge. In fact, in many third-world countries like mine, conceding power to a new, upcoming chain of command is sometimes seen as an agenda impossible to fulfill, a pure and simple utopia. It’s very common for such countries to have some political form of “dictatorship,” in which constitutions are amended, reviewed, and forged with the explicit goal of helping the current power sustain and maintain itself “for life.” Often, the only way out involves the death of the leader, or — in much more sinister cases — a coup d’etat that sometimes sheds the blood of innocent victims, as well as that of the “greedy” actors and players of the political arena.

A recent example of this type of situation can be seen in the case of Guinea last month. If the United States were like Guinea, Bush would have simply refused to step down from power on the morning of January 20, using the army to back him up, and subjecting the country and its institutions to an uncertain destiny and a level of chaos that the people here probably can’t imagine actually facing. But, luckily, American democracy is mature enough to teach their “know-how” to the rest of the world.

Hoorah for the smooth transition … regardless of your political views, that is America’s legacy to the world.

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