This is one bitter commuter…

Posted on by David Stokes

Cheryl Fleming is one unhappy commuter:

Fleming said she won’t ride MetroLink partly because it consumes too much time. "I’m going to drive through other people’s neighborhoods and depreciate their roads," she said.

This quote is from a Post-Dispatch article on Rep. Scott Muschany’s town hall forum on the coming I-64/40 project.  It is always a good thing when public officials open listen to the taxpayers, so I commend Scott for holding this forum.  But Ms. Fleming’s comments jumped out at me.  As Ms. Fleming attempts to intentionally "depreciate" the roads around mid-county, she is going to quickly run into one very hard fact of transportation in St. Louis.  There are many east-west routes, but not a whole lot of north-south routes for her to choose from.  I have heard MoDOT discuss this in planning meetings.  There are enough east-west routes available that the commuter traffic during 64/40’s closure might not be as terrible as some think (no doubt it is going to be very bad.)  However, the north-south traffic situation might be far worse than people realize during construction.  Just take Downtown Clayton for instance.  There are only two ways to leave downtown Clayton going south without first traveling east or west: Hanley and Brentwood. (I am not counting I-170 as it ends just south of Clayton and will be partly closed anyway.)  Take one of these routes out for construction and the other one is going to be a nightmare.  If you move east or west to avoid it, you’ll be stuck in east-west commuter traffic before you even have the change to go south.  Ms. Fleming can drive through neighborhoods to "Depreciate" the roads all she wants, but sooner or later she is going to have to cross the closed I-64, and she can’t do that via neigborhood roads.  At that point MetroLink might look like a good option for her to get to work at her Church. 

SLPS Students Protest

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Students in the St. Louis Public Schools are protesting at Mayor Slay’s office. They’re worried that their diplomas won’t matter:

Among other items, they asked to review the mayor’s "educational plan" and wanted to know if their scholarships and admissions to colleges were in jeopardy under the cloud of the district possibly losing its accreditation. They also asked that Slay keep his promises regarding their educational futures[…]

A press release issued Thursday was rife with nebulous language. Officials "believe" students from an unaccredited district will have valid diplomas and "should" not be disqualified from admissions or financial aid. "However," the news release continued, "it is possible that students could encounter obstacles in some cases."

Whether or not the district’s unaccredited status causes bureaucratic problems for graduates, these students have been cheated out of an education. For years, the district has been unable to bring up test scores or prepare students for college.

This protest probably won’t have much effect on the district’s accreditation, just like a protest wouldn’t raise students’ reading scores or graduation rates. When a private school doesn’t meet parents’ expectations, they take their tuition dollars elsewhere. Tax credit scholarships would give St. Louis students that same level of empowerment–if the district didn’t address their concerns, they could vote with their feet.

Brokeback pensions

Posted on by David Stokes

Could this ruling be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for City of St. Louis finances?  Probably not, but having to come up with $24 million is going to be very difficult.  And from the article it sounds like even more may be due by the time this all play out.

The decision could force the city to put $23 million more toward the police pension fund for years not included in the court case, said Police Retirement System lawyer James C. Owen, and possibly millions on top of that for the firefighters’ fund.

It seems every election the City is trying to increase the sales tax here or the property tax there.  The tax increase always seems to pass, and is usually a very small one, but it does not take a genius to realize these small taxes add up.  It appears that the City is either going to have to raise $24 million or cut $24 million.  I know which one I would recommend.  I suspect the easiest way for them to raise the money would be to not roll back tax rates in response to the 2007 assessment.  I don’t know where the City stands in relation to its Hancock cap, and therefore what the forced roll back would be, but if City property vales go up substantially this assessment period, as they did in 2005, reducing the roll back would be one easy way to at least get some of the money.  I am not at all saying they should do this, I am just saying they might try to.  The City should do about 100 other things to cut $24 million first, but that is a topic for a detailed study, not a blog post.

Charter School Confusion

Posted on by Steven Bernstetter

My colleague, Sarah Brodsky, blogged the other day about the recent efforts of Mayor Slay to acquire the authority necessary to approve new charter schools in St. Louis. She correctly pointed out that Charter schools are not an education cure-all, but nonetheless a step in the right direction. Today whilst trolling the blogosphere I happened upon this. Ignore the politico for a second and scroll down to the comments section for a lively debate about the merits of charter schools and the larger issue of SLPS. Here’s some of the objections you’ll find:

1) Charter schools are just another step towards public funding of private (religious) schools

2) Charter schools are poorly run, ineffectual, and potentially corruptable.

3) Mayor Slay is part of some deeper, more devious plot to undermine SLPS and institute some undisclosed master plan of a nefarious nature.

The first two objections may very well prove to be true, but we won’t know until we try. Nonetheless, these kinds of problems are exactly what careful public policy debate is intended to overcome. So, instead of listing objections and deciding a priori that Charter schools are a dead end, perhaps we should try and find ways to preserve the positive aspects of charter schools, like the choices they create for parents and students, and mininmize these potential negative factors. As for that third objection, well, I don’t really trust politicians either…

I can understand the strong feelings people may have towards the democratic values embodied in public schooling, but any fool can see that the system is broken and that it is time for something different. Charter schools may be part of this, and Mayoral involvement, as a recent SMI Study suggested, is crucial. However, by limiting debate to charter v. SLPS schools, we’re essentially shooting ourselves in the foot. At this point, all options should be on the table, and we shouldn’t let conspiracy theories get in the way of doing what’s best for kids.

St. Louis Could Gain New Charter Schools

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Mayor Slay is trying to open more charter schools in St. Louis:

Slay said he envisioned a wide range of charter schools that would operate independently of his office but would be accountable to him for their performance. Charter schools are public schools led by their own boards, but they can be closed by the entities that authorized their formation.

Slay said his support of charters should not be interpreted as hostility to traditional public schools. Even so, he offered harsh words for the failure of city schools, which he said continued to push families out of the city.

Charter schools aren’t an educational cure-all, and the only way to solve the crisis in public schooling is to give market forces free reign. With that said, charter schools are a big step in the right direction. They provide educational options to underperforming students and allow for more specialized curricula than the traditional one-size-fits-all model. St. Louis lags behind Kansas City in charter schools–Mayor Slay could help it catch up.

Minimum Wage provides minimum advantages

Posted on by Steven Bernstetter

Governor Blunt recently changed his mind about Missouri’s new Minimum Wage laws. Initially, January’s minimum wage increase applied only to non-tipped workers. However, this week Governor Blunt changed his stance on this issue, and is now telling restraunts and other service industry businesses that hire tipped workers that their wages must also increase from the Federal minimum of $2.13/hr to $3.25/hr, or half the state’s minimum for non-tipped workers. As one might imagine, the consensus on this change is divided evenly between those who stand to benefit and those who don’t.

Way back in 2006, before the min. wage increase, SMI released a study explaining why a min. wage increase might be bad for both concerned parties. Though the study mainly focused on the non-tipped wage of $6.50/hr, the same arguments hold for tipped workers: higher min. wages means less businesses able to pay that wage, which means more people without jobs. Furthermore, as an article in the Joplin Globe explained, min. wage hikes can have other unintended affects:

Mike Wiggins, owner of Continental Catering and Granny Shaffer’s restaurants in Joplin and Webb City, said Blunt’s declaration might cost tipped employees more than it benefits them. He said a higher income bracket, for instance, might make some ineligible for state medical services and day-care assistance.

While everyone can appreciate a little extra on their paycheck, that little bit extra can have an overall negative net affect. Inevitably, some waitpersons who now have jobs will find themselves in the unemployment line along with some of their former employers who, under the new requirements, could no longer afford to compete.

Radio Free North County

Posted on by David Stokes

I promise this will be the last post of police radio dispatching for some time, but the Post-Dispatch had another story on it today.  I am not going to talk about the dispute in the attached article, other than saying people should pay their bills and avoid conflicts of interest.  The nugget I am interested in is the radio consortium operated by the police departments of Pine Lawn, Wellston, Pagedale, Kinloch and Beverly Hills.  Kudos to them for sharing this system for years and saving money for taxpayers, beyond just the money saved by not paying rent to Normandy School District.  A bit of research shows me that most of the above cities contract with St. Louis County for electrical and plumbing inspections, which is also a good example of consolidation.  Kinloch has, for all intents and purposes, stopped providing government services to its 449 people, other than arresting airport contractors trying to clean up trash within the city.  For that it thinks it needs a full time mayor, but that is another issue. 

Back to the radio consortium.  In the interest of their citizens, these five cities, and many others in the near-north area, should follow this small example and either merge into one municipality or, better yet, disincorporate entirely and let St. Louis County provide all these services to the residents of this area for less tax money than they currently pay.  For small, poor cities, disincorporation is a true win-win situation, but it will still never happen ’cause the police chiefs and mayors like their jobs to much.         

I first I thought this was a good thing…

Posted on by David Stokes

When I first read that Brentwood had lowered its emergency dispatching bid for Rock Hill by $100,000, I thought this might be an excellent and all-too rare example of municipal cooperation.  Its a good thing that Brentwood contracts out its services to a neighboring muni to avoid duplication, right?  Well, yes, of course it is.  But if you read the entire article you realize that a better option is staring right at both Brentwood and Rock Hill.  Both cities could join the East Central Dispatch system that began in 2004 as a far-sighted consolidation of services by Clayton, Richmond Heights, Maplewood, Webster Groves and Shrewsbury.  Brentwood’s bid may have been $15,000 lower to Rock Hill than EC Dispatch’s, but if both cities joined that latter bid would likely be even lower.  That does not even get into the savings Brentwood might see by eliminating its dispatching service and contracting with EC Dispatch.

In order to keep Rock Hill as part of their own dispatching service, Brentwood raised taxes by $56,000 to cover the cost of the lower bid!  Mayor Kelly (Brentwood) is one of the best mayors in St. Louis County, but he needs to ditch the dispatch and both Brentwood and Rock Hill should join East Central Dispatch faster than an ambulance can make it from St. Mary’s to South Webster.  Although with the coming I-64/40 work, maybe they should do it faster than that.    

Don’t Drain the Sales Tax Pool

Posted on by David Stokes

What does every city with a recent eminent domain controversy in Saint Louis County have in common? They are all “point-of-sale” cities, which keep the majority of sales taxes they collect under the County’s complicated sales tax distribution formula. Legislation has been introduced in Jefferson City that would exacerbate the problem. It would change the way sales taxes are distributed in Saint Louis County and revert back to the system that existed prior to 1994, which would have even greater potential for eminent-domain abuse. Abandoning the so-called “Westfall Plan” would be a mistake with serious repercussions for economic development.

In the early 1990s, Buzz Westfall and the County Council addressed the inequities in the collection and dispersion of sales taxes within Saint Louis County. At the time, cities with significant retail had their own sales taxes and kept all of the money. After difficult negotiations, a compromise was reached and Saint Louis County now has a countywide sales tax and a shared tax pool with point-of-sale, (or “A”) and “pool” (or “B”) cities. A cities keep the majority of their sales taxes but are required to share a portion with the pool. The rest of the county turns over all the sales taxes they collect to the pool, which is then redistributed to the B cities, which includes unincorporated Saint Louis County, based on population. Not surprisingly, A cities tend to be places with significant retail while the B cities have limited retail or large populations. The proposed legislation would end this system in 2008, allowing A cities to again keep all of the sales tax money they collect.

The current system acknowledges the fact that most shoppers going to the Galleria don’t live in Richmond Heights. It also benefits the business environment in our area by rewarding non-retail economic development. If Webster Groves attracts a new corporate headquarters, that would clearly generate significant new sales taxes for the area based on the new jobs and employees brought to the region. Why should a neighboring A city with significant shopping, such as Brentwood, keep all of the sales taxes generated within Brentwood by the new employees of that Webster Groves company? Eliminating the pool contributions of A cities would further press all cities to search for ways to increase sales taxes and grow retail development at the expense of other modes of the economy, such as finance and manufacturing, which generate the salaries used to go shopping in the first place.

That pressure to increase the retail economy, as opposed to other types of development, is one of the main reasons behind the eminent domain abuses we have seen in recent years in Saint Louis County. It is not a coincidence that all of the controversial eminent domain actions in Saint Louis County have occurred in A cities such as Sunset Hills, Manchester, Rock Hill and Clayton. Residential areas such as the one at issue in Sunset Hills have more tax value to B cities, where a city’s population is a significant factor in the amount received from the pool.

The argument in favor of allowing A cities to keep all of the sales tax would be stronger if those cities were responsible for all the infrastructure that supported the development. However, the primary shopping areas are, for obvious reasons, located along major roadways. Those roadways are usually state or county roads that taxpayers throughout Saint LouisCounty pay to maintain, not just the municipalities they run through. There are other examples, such as fire department mutual aid agreements, that demonstrate the interconnected nature of local government in Saint Louis County and argue for keeping the current sales tax pool distribution system.

In the interest of property owners, the contributions of A cities to the sales tax pool should be maintained. All types of industry and commerce benefit our community, not just retail sales outlets. If anything, the pool should be expanded further so that all cities would benefit from development throughout the county, not just within their own borders. The current system helps to relieve the pressure on local governments to constantly generate more sales tax dollars by any means necessary and preserve the property rights so central to the rights of free people.

 

 

David Stokes is a writer living in University City.

 

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