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.

This Is The Best Idea I Have Ever Had…

Posted on by David Stokes

A short time ago, Maurice wrote about how a proposal to dramatically increase the cigarette tax in Illinois might drive Illinois smokers to buy their cancer sticks in Missouri. This article reminded me about how Bill McClellan used to write in the Post about the experiences he would have buying liquor on Sundays in Illinois, before Missouri allowed Sunday sales in the mid-’90s. And then it hit me — we need an area between the two states, sort of a duty-free, local-tax demilitarized zone, where residents can go to experience the best of both states at the same time.

Seriously, join me as I go with this idea for a bit. What are the tax/entertainment benefits of Illinois that Missouri residents cross the river to get? Let’s get the obvious out of the way here: Illinois gives you gambling like they have it in Vegas (no $2 entrance fee, no loss limits, no charge for drinks), strip clubs and horse racing. Next, if you are a Missourian lucky enough to have an office or close friends or family in Illinois, you can register your car there and avoid Missouri’s automobile property tax. Ticket scalping is also legal in Illinois, although that, like Sunday liquor sales, appears to be coming to Missouri. Finally, they have later bar closing hours, although asking a question like that at Pop’s suddenly gets very existential. (How can a bar never close???)

What benefits does Missouri offer Illinois residents? For the most part, it’s the lower taxes on gas and cigarettes that Illinois residents get here. We have a tax of 17 cents per pack and per gallon, both, while in the Land of Lincoln it’s 98 cents per pack and 32.5 per gallon. Missouri also has a lower sales tax in general than Illinois, although if you add in the local St. Louis sales taxes, I think the comparison evens out. Neither state has a bottle deposit law like Michigan, but it’s safe to say Missouri will be the last state in America to pass that, so we’ll count that for us.

So I suggest we declare the middle hundred yards or so of the Eads bridge an area within both states, under control of an appointed, multi-state board like Metro, where the lower taxes and more permissive limits of either state apply. The area would need a gas station, a convenience store, a bar, a state revenue office that could serve both states, and a UPS store for your auto registration, and a Post Office Box. The bar would close late and sell packages-to-go, the gas would be cheap — the smokes, too — and it would all be a short walk to the Casino Queen, if that is how you like to spend your property tax savings. I intend to talk to the governors of both states about this, just as soon as I sober up.

P.S. — I was only joking about having to sober up.

Welcome to Missouri, Illinois Smokers!

Posted on by Maurice Harris

According to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Illinois may be looking to increase its cigarette tax to pay for health care:

State leaders are quietly exploring the possibility of doubling
Illinois’ cigarette tax to almost $2 a pack in an effort to fund Gov.
Rod Blagojevich’s universal health care plan.

Missouri’s cigarette tax would remain at 17 cents, the lowest in the nation. There is really a two-fold lesson here. One, instead of trying to tax an decreasingly popular lifestyle to provide health care for everyone, open health care to the free market. Two, this will lead many Illinois residents to border states like Missouri in the search for cheaper cigarettes. In my view, let them come. The welcome mat is out for Illinois.

Who is Buying What?

Posted on by Maurice Harris

An editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today discusses the findings of one person who is rummaging through the purchases of state officials. Of the billions of dollars of spending, here are a couple of interesting things that they, and I, are wondering why the state purchased:

What did the taxpayers get for the $950 in prizes for the Missouri
Horseshoe Pitchers Association? And what’s the story on the $9 spent
for shoe repair at Albert’s Shoe Repair? Whose shoes were they, and why
was the state picking up the tab?

The editorial also points out how troublesome it is that we can see where the purchases were made, but little else. There are no details of what exactly was bought, or what the exact purpose was. The website is a great step toward accountability, as I explained in an earlier blog entry, but hopefully, as time goes on, the system will provide greater detail about government expenditures.

P.S. The state of Missouri spent $5,615.15 at Imo’s in the last fiscal year. That’s a whole lot of pizza and toasted ravioli.

County Proceeds With Takeover of Conway Road

Posted on by David Stokes

St. Louis County is proceeding (agenda item # 28) with the takeover of Conway Road in response to Westwood’s insane idea of jamming up alternate traffic routes during I-64 construction for a million other county residents, in order to benefit 284. Westwood village chairman Frederick Berger is quoted in the Post-Dispatch:

"I continue to think the county does not have the right to take over Conway Road," Berger said.

If this was just a politician grandstanding, that would be one thing. But he also serves as the village attorney, and as such is supposed to know the law. And that law, again according to the Post:

"County code and state law authorize the council to designate any road within St. Louis County as part of its arterial road system, regardless of city boundaries or opposition."

So he is completely wrong. End of argument. The article goes on to describe how other cities (Ladue, Frontenac, Creve Couer) objected to earlier county road takeover plans to handle I-64 construction and were able to come to an agreement with the county without a takeover. That is true, but what is left out is that the county got everything it wanted from the munis as part of those discussions. The threat to just take over the road and do whatever the county wants is very real, and there is no realistic municipality counter.

Westwood should drop this selfish idea of putting up gates during construction to screw everyone else. Then, and only then, should the county drop its takeover plans. I live in U. City. During MetroLink construction, we lost the use of the Forest Park Parkway for three years. Everyone has to sacrifice a little during these major construction projects. It is a part of democracy, and also just basic decency.

It’s Time To Upgrade Our Teachers

Posted on by Maurice Harris

An article in today’s Southeast Missourian talks about a report that ranks Missouri teacher preparation at the bottom in the United States:

Missouri received low marks — C’s and D’s — in its regulations
dealing with quality, licensing and evaluation of teachers, state
governance of teacher preparation programs, alternate routes to teacher
certification and preparation of special education teachers.

The report criticizes the academic courses that education majors take, the fact that teachers are evaluated every other year rather than every year, and that the route to alternative certification is too burdensome — especially for people who want to transition from other careers to become teachers. There is some room to reform teacher education in Missouri, and it’s time to review how we train teachers here to make sure they have the skills necessary to teach children in the 21st century.

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