State Invertebrate

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

I have mixed feelings about the state invertebrate. (Thanks, Combest!) I love crayfish, and creating new state symbols is about the least harmful thing legislators could do. It’s not like it’s a tax on crayfish. Still, the story bothers me:

The lesson had groups of students studying different types of invertebrates such as insects, millipedes, arachnids, segmented worms and crustaceans. It also asked students to find out whether Missouri had a state invertebrate, and make a case for why a particular one should represent the state […]

After the crayfish won the class vote, students contacted state representative Dennis Wood, R-Kimberling City, who agreed to meet with them.

I think it’s inappropriate to put students in the role of lobbyists, under the guise of studying the legislative process. When Missouri State University asked a student to lobby on a more controversial subject, legislators took that as an opportunity to try to regulate course content.

Furthermore, school assignments should not force political positions on sixth-graders. These kids are not mature or knowledgable enough to consider the pros and cons of legislation. And most 12-year-olds won’t go against their peers and argue that a new state symbol is a bad idea. The assignment didn’t even allow for conscientious objection. Everyone had to vote on one invertebrate, then everyone lobbied for what the group had chosen. From the remarks of the children who were quoted in the article — the more state symbols the better, because we study them in fourth grade — leeches are bad for the environment. You can see that they’re not thinking about this in a serious way.

I Love the Sales Tax Holiday!

Posted on by David Stokes

I stand to respectfully yet strongly disagree with my colleague Sarah Brodsky, over her arguments against the sales tax holiday. The state sales tax holiday occurs each year sometime in August before schools start, and is targeted toward items people need as they prepare to go back to school. Items exempt from the sales tax include school supplies, clothes under a certain amount, computers under a certain amount (these amounts are subject to change), and so on. You don’t get a tax exemption for luxury clothes, top-of-the-line computers, etc. I think this idea is a great one and I wish the state did not allow individual cities and counties to opt out.

When I worked for Kurt Odenwald at the St. Louis County Council, he led the fight to have St. Louis County opt in, and thereby exempt its sales tax along with the state’s for the weekend. As I recall, St. Louis City also opted in because St. Louis County did, and the city and county then saw an increase in sales for their businesses as shoppers came over from Illinois to shop that weekend in Missouri.

Sarah is completely right when she writes that tax policy should be broad-based, fair and consistent. And I agree that it would be preferable to just lower the sales tax slightly year-round instead of exempting it for a weekend. However, this is one case to me where the practical trumps the theoretical. It would be nice to lower the tax year round, but that is not happening. A sales tax holiday is happening, and I think it benefits Missouri consumers and businesses. And if it puts a slight hurt on some municipal budget, you can imagine how much I care about that. About this much.

My Ears are Burning

Posted on by Eric D. Dixon

Just a few days after Paul Jacob mentioned our scholar R.W. Hafer’s op-ed about St. Louis traffic and bridge construction in both his Common Sense radio commentary and Townhall column, Paul has mentioned the Show-Me Institute again in Common Sense — this time quoting a blog entry I wrote last month about Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s fight to reform the congressional earmark process:

Time will tell whether McCaskill sticks to her guns. But McCaskill has supported Republican Senator Jim DeMint’s new push to ensure that earmark requests be transparent, revealing the name of the sponsor and exactly where the money is going. Early moves toward such transparency in the new senate have stalled.

Eric Dixon, an editor at Missouri’s Show-Me Institute, says "We should congratulate McCaskill for sticking to her principles in her fight against congressional earmarks." I agree. I’m cautiously optimistic. Very cautiously, though. Show me!

I made much the same sort of qualification in a blog entry earlier this month. The real measure of a fight for reform is how well it holds up in the long run. Hopefully, McCaskill will stick to her guns.

No Sales Tax Holiday in Jeff City

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Via Combest, an article in the Jefferson City News-Tribune about Jeff City’s exemption from the sales tax holiday:

City Council members Monday night voted 8-2 for a bill permanently exempting the city’s sales taxes from being included in the weekend-long, back-to-school related holiday that cancels the state’s sales taxes on designated clothing, technology and school supply items.

I don’t love paying taxes, and I’m not a big fan of sales taxes in particular. But I think Jefferson City is right to avoid a sales tax holiday. Taxes should be broad-based, fair, and consistent. Exemptions for specific products on special days cause people to make bad choices as they change their behavior to take advantage of the holiday.

Reading, Writing, and… Labor Studies

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

John Combest links to an article about the University of Missouri at Kansas City. UMKC is getting rid of its Institute for Labor Studies, which offered a certificate for people who want to be union leaders:

With the elimination of the institute, the only labor-education and worker-training program of its kind in the Kansas City area, Judith Ancel could be out of a job.

“I feel enormously disappointed,” said Ancel, who has run the institute since 1985 and is its only full-time staff member. “To destroy this labor education program is really depriving our citizens, most of whom are working people, of a dialogue that is not biased.”

Good for UMKC. It looks like this program was a waste of tax money. Not that private schools are always much better at avoiding fluff courses — my alma mater offers several majors with little academic content — but at least private schools have to find customers to pay full tuition.

The rationale for public schooling is that it gives students skills and knowledge that the rest of us benefit from. We’re then willing to pay for it in taxes because of the huge positive externality. Dialogue for union leaders just doesn’t help taxpayers enough to warrant the expense.

Gephardt and Health Care Reform … Bad Combination

Posted on by Maurice Harris

In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an article discusses  former Rep. Richard Gephardt’s visit to Springfield, IL, to tout Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s universal health care plan to legislative leaders who are still trying to put together a budget before July 1:

Gephardt, who has been traveling the country lobbying for universal
health care, emerged from a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrat
Blagojevich and Illinois legislative leaders after less than an hour. He touted the governor’s plan as part of a national movement toward
expanding health care and shifting costs from employers to society.

Now, as we all hopefully know by this point, universal health care is the biggest waste of money and time. While Blagojevich is wasting time trying to pass a huge program the state cannot afford, he should be reading Missouri’s HB 818 for practical reforms that give businesses and workers greater flexibility and affordablity for health care. Blago’s plan is a trap that Illinois cannot afford, and Illinois lawmakers should look for a plan that will help people across the board to obtain true choice in health care.

Let’s Make Everything Safe for Everyone Always and Forever!

Posted on by David Stokes

One consistent article of modern government at all levels and parties is the constant need to protect people in every way imaginable. St. Charles County is getting in on the act with a bill (I can’t find a link to it) to regulate swimming pools, tanning salons, martial arts studios, fitness centers, and spas. Not all parts of this bill are bad, and by modern standards of government the regulations strike me as reasonable. Swimming pools are dangerous, as brilliantly demonstrated in the book "Freakonomics." What troubles me is the fact that the bill has so many silly aspects, like regulating martial arts studios — although, in defense of St. Charles, the proposed regulations don’t seem particularly burdensome.

Of course, that’s how they get you. Unburdensome regulations that nobody objects to set the precedent for regulation of an industry, occupation or business, and then when government ramps up the regulations you have already lost the first argument. There is a disturnbing comment in the article from County Councilman Dan Foust:

"It would be a great opportunity for the county to address something that could possibly be a safety hazard," said the bill’s sponsor, Council Chairman Dan Foust, R-6th District.

Please re-read this carefully with me. These new regulations are not deemed as absulutely necessary, they are just "a great opportunity" to regulate something, probably under the impossible-to-refute logic that it’s better to do something now than to wait for a tragedy to force us to act. Next, the items being regulated are not unsafe, they merely "could possibly be a safety hazard." Is there any aspect of life that is not deserving of government regulation — for our own safety — under Councilman Foust’s logic?  What’s next, something completely crazy like doctors who have for years complained about lawsuits now suing to protect their own industry turf? Oh, wait…

State Takes Aim at the Start of School

Posted on by Maurice Harris

In the Southeast Missourian (via Combest) an article discusses a new state law that would require school districts not to start earlier than 10 days before Labor Day:

School districts will have to do more work if they want to start school in mid-August next year. At a ceremony in Branson on Monday, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder signed a bill
requiring schools to begin their school year no sooner than 10 days
before Labor Day.

The caveat to this new law is that school districts who want to start earlier would have to have a public meeting and voter approval every year to set the start date of schools before the 10-day requirement. Again, the state is taking local decisionmaking outside of the school districts, which would know better than the state of Missouri when to start school to make sure their students receive the best educations.

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