Missouri is Making Motorists’ Lives Easier

Posted on by Maurice Harris

In today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an article discusses the re-introduction of emissions tests at private repair shops starting Sept. 4. Nearly 600 auto shops are already signed up to be allowed to perform the tests. The goal is to make the process easier for motorists:

For the past seven years, most Missouri motorists have had to make two
stops to have their biennial safety and emissions tests. That will
change on Sept. 4, when Missouri shifts the emissions tests from a
dozen contractor-run test centers back to private repair shops.

Combining the two tests at a single place is a great idea. It offers motorists time-saving convenience by reducing the number of required stops, and helps eliminate the infamously long wait times at emissions test centers. Now I wish I had waited to buy my car in September, so I could have taken advantage of this.

A Taxpayer Fights for Answers

Posted on by Maurice Harris

article in today’s Columbia Daily-Tribune profiles a taxpayer who’s taking action, getting involved in the process by which the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC) issues tax credits to develop affordable housing in Missouri. The man, Greg Young, began by questioning why the MHDC gave such a big tax credit to a Springfield project:

Young focused on a $4 million housing project in Springfield that
was financed with $11 million in state and federal tax credits for
historic buildings and low-income housing.
After doing the math, Young concluded taxpayers were providing more
than $300,000 for each of the 32 apartments in the rental housing
project.

Young saw this as a waste of tax dollars and looked into why the MHDC was appropriating so much money. He discovered that the state does not audit much of the money received by housing developers, outside of independent audits paid for by developers.

Young has begun studying economics on his own, and requesting MHDC documents through the Sunshine Law. He goes to their meetings and asks questions about why the commission’s ineffective largesse. The state could use more of this type of active citizenship.

State Treasurer Sarah Steelman, an MHDC member, appreiciates what he is doing:

He is a citizen who has taken an interest in the commission and who
hopefully wants to make it a better program, said state Treasurer
Sarah Steelman, who was MHDC chairwoman when Young made his statement. I’ve always had the opinion you never want to deter people from taking
an interest in what government is doing.

There should be more citizens like Young, Steelman said.

The political system needs people like Greg Young. Taxpayers often don’t know where their money is being spent, and even when they do, many just complain and move on. Young went a step further and decided to take action. If more citizens did that, government would be more responsive to citizens’ needs. I congratulate Mr. Young and hope he keeps up the good fight.

TDDs Are Valuable, But Need Improvement

Posted on by David Stokes

I just wanted to add my thoughts to Maurice’s post on transportation development districts. I don’t disagree with anything he said, but want to state that TDDs are a good way to pay for road improvements around new developments that would not otherwise happen. Developers already have to pay into the county road trust fund when they do projects that require road improvements, so it is not as if they get off scot-free. I agree, TDDs could use more accountability, but there is a way for people to find out what the sales tax rates are where they are shopping — they can look at their receipt.

Metro Pushes for Sales Tax Increase

Posted on by David Stokes

Good article today in the Post-Dispatch, via Combest, of course, about a proposal by Metro and St. Louis County to put a sales tax increase on the ballot to fund expansion of MetroLink and shore up Metro’s current finances. I have written about this proposal before. I will probably vote for it, as I live near MetroLink, my wife uses it regularly to commute to work, and I ride MetroLink or the bus about once a week. If I didn’t live so close to it, I don’t know how I would vote. I do predict its defeat, though, at the polls — probably by a wide margin. I am not saying that is what I want, just that it’s my prediction. A 1/2-cent increase is enough to make people stop and think, unlike those 1/8-cent increases you get all the time to fund police pensions, or expand storm water controls, or any of about a dozen other reasons. 

But we here at the Show-Me Institute are not about politics, we are about policy. So as this issue moves forward, I can promise you we will come out with detailed information on the proposal — not whether or not it will pass. To start with, I recommend the various studies the Reason Foundation has done on light rail. They are more opposed, in general, to light rail than I, but they have a number of great studies on this subject, and their opinions are backed by solid research. Here is a concise letter to the editor from my friend Len Gilroy, with Reason, that makes a good argument for Houston, his hometown.

One thing we agree on is the absolute necessity of Metro trying to work more closely with private corporations through public-private partnerships to serve the needs of the greater St. Louis area. And yes, I know the attached link is about roads, but PPPs can work for transit, too.

Transportation Development Districts and Their Problems

Posted on by Maurice Harris

In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an article discusses a state audit that shows Transportation Development Districts (TDDs) are taking money without knowing where it is spent. TDDs are created to raise money, by means of a special sales tax, to fix roadways and other traffic needs in areas where new developments are being built. It sounds harmless enough, but the public is often kept in the dark on TDD operations:

The audits say taxes are raised without a public vote and little
government oversight. Montee said the previous audit recommended
various changes in the law to improve the process, but that legislators
have done little to address the concerns.

TDDs and their governing boards are created by court order, sometimes instigated by the petitions of developers. From there, the tax rate is approved by the board. Limited input from the public, or from officials outside the TDD process, has led to a lack of oversight on how the money is spent, and the actual amount of the tax:

She [Montee] found a variety of problems, such as competitive bids for the work
not being done properly or at all; districts charging a higher sales
tax rate than authorized; and a lack of documentation proving the right
amount was paid to reimburse developers for their costs. In one
instance, the developer’s costs were counted twice.

This audit follows up on one conducted by the auditor’s office on TDDs last year. Hopefully, these findings will spur changes in the law that increase accountability. Most importantly, there should be public input to make sure taxpayers are aware of the tax rates that affect them.

Gov. Blunt Did the Right Thing

Posted on by Maurice Harris

A letter to the editor in yesterday’s Columbia Tribune claims Gov. Blunt needs to repent for cutting Medicaid:

With a reported $320 million surplus in our state budget, it’s time for
Gov. Matt Blunt to repent for his sins against the disabled, elderly
and low-income citizens of Missouri and right this terrible wrong.

In 2005, Missouri faced a growing budget deficit and a Medicaid system that was costing far more than it should. The state couldn’t bust its budget or sacrifice transportation, schools, and other essential things in order to cover Medicaid expenditures. Just because Missouri now has a surplus is no reason for the state to fall into the same trap that caused the deficit in the first place. Fiscal solvency doesn’t last if we squander every windfall on programs that aren’t sustainable.

Only by opening up the health care market and moving away from the third-party providers that raise prices for everybody can we provide quality health care for all. The solution lies not in the bureaucracy and centralized control of government, but in the efficiency and accountability of the private sector.

The Evidence is in for Property Tax Reform

Posted on by Maurice Harris

An op-ed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch points out the flaws that Sen. Michael Gibbons needs to address in his efforts to reform the property tax system in Missouri next year. These range from cases of both over- and under-assessment of property in some counties, to the fact that there are different techniques for assessing property, which causes disparities in the amount people pay. There are many signs that the current system has failed Missouri taxpayers.

Property taxes have a huge effect not only on our pocketbooks, but also on how school districts receive state aid:

Such variations obviously are unfair, especially when it comes to
school funding. The state’s complicated formula for calculating the
funding of public schools is based on the wealth of a school district
as measured by its property assessments in 2004. The lower the assessed
value, the more state funding a district receives.

Sen. Gibbons is on the right path in calling for property tax reform. The system is riddled with mistakes that have been known for years, and cannot be overlooked any longer. Missourians want to know that they are being taxed fairly and honestly, and to make sure that they are paying no more than their fair share to their localities.

City Students + Parochial Schools = Great Education

Posted on by Maurice Harris

In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today, an article discusses efforts by the Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation to fund 100 scholarships, worth $2,000 each, to low-income city students who would like to attend parochial schools:

Foundation leaders are aiming to steer students away from troubled St.
Louis public schools immediately. They also hope to bolster enrollment
at Catholic and Lutheran schools in the city, many of which are
struggling to fill empty desks.

The program would give 100 children $2,000 each year for nine years, paying half to two-thirds of school tuition, Catholic school and foundation officials said Monday.

The program is a win-win for both parents and the parochial schools. It is great for parents who can’t afford to send their children to parochial schools because of prohibitive costs, and great for parochial schools who are having trouble increasing enrollment. Judging by the recent state of the Saint Louis public schools, I assume that these scholarships will be snapped up quickly, giving parents the option of sending their children to better schools.

The Hidden Effects of Government Spending

Posted on by Eric D. Dixon

Over the weekend, Fired Up! Missouri offered a succinct comparison:

Here is a case study in priorities.

There are 121,000 kids without health insurance in Missouri.

And Matt Blunt and Peter Kinder are spending $1 million dollars on… a bike race.

Of course, I agree that health care is a critical priority for the Missouri government — even though Fired Up! is unlikely to agree with me that the best way to get people the care they actually need is through providing tax incentives for individual policies and eliminating red tape that gums up the workings of the market.

Fired Up! is right on the money, though, that a bike race is a ridiculous government expenditure. There may be many good reasons for a prominent race in Missouri — prestige, tourism, competition with neighboring states — but, as economist Frédéric Bastiat would have pointed out, every action has both effects that are obvious and effects that are hidden. An exciting race is an effect that we can see, but every dollar taken from taxpayers to spend on a bicycle race is a dollar that can’t go toward filling up a gas tank, buying groceries, taking a child to piano lessons, or, say, buying a bicycle — all effects that we can’t see.

Thanks to the diffuse costs and concentrated benefits of special interest politics, these hidden effects go almost entirely unnoticed by the general public. But a $1 million expenditure that seems measly in political terms is actually a huge aggregate amount, sucked from the economy and redistributed to politically favored recipients. Frankly, a state-sponsored bicycle race is a bad idea for the same reason that HB 327 was a bad idea — government spending on favored economic ventures makes everybody else a little bit poorer.

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