The TIF Tax
On the November ballot, many Clay, Jackson, and Platte County residents will be asked to increase their property tax levy...
Entrepreneurship in Missouri, Part 2: Where Is the Job Growth?
A week ago I wrote of the decline of entrepreneurial activity in the nation, Missouri, Kansas City, MO, and Saint...
A New Agenda for Cities Must Come from Cities
Recently, Kansas City, Missouri’s mayor, Sly James, wrote in The Hill that America needed a new agenda for cities. No...
Kansas City: Missouri’s Economic Albatross
In January, Kansas City Mayor Sly James testified before the Missouri legislature, saying, It’s a bleak future without the Kansas...
Kansas City’s Economic Divide
On a recent broadcast of KCPT’s Ruckus, former KC Chamber of Commerce head Jim Heeter said [starts at 11:02], Greater...
A Well Intentioned Disaster: A Presentation on the Merits of Common Core State Standards
The following is taken from a presentation given by Show-Me Institute Distinguished Fellow of Education Policy James Shuls on February...
Kansas City’s Taxes Aren’t “Relatively Low”
Last week our friend Dave Helling at the Kansas City Star wrote about the upcoming earnings tax fight, and on many...
Preschool: Silver Bullet?
Former St. Louis Mayor Vince Schoemehl recently penned a letter to the St. Louis Business Journal about the benefits of...
Opportunity and Mobility in Missouri
Earlier this year, researchers from Harvard released a blockbuster study on economic mobility in the United States. The conclusion: neighborhoods...
Be Skeptical of Dome Convention Claims
Recently, the Post-Dispatch published an article on the economic effects of the Edward Jones Dome’s conventions. The Convention and Visitors Commission...
Of Stadiums and Economic Spillovers
Recently, we wrote a letter to the Post-Dispatch that criticized the idea that new tax revenue from a riverfront stadium...
Star Survey Results Actually No Surprise at All
The Kansas City Star‘s Yael Abouhalkah seems surprised that voters in the Star‘s unscientific online survey rejected the question, “Should taxpayers...
It Is Hip To Be Square
Kansas City leaders have sacrificed much at the altar of cool. But arguably the coolest thing to happen to the...
Conventional Fears
Let’s be honest. We all like new stuff. So I can understand why Jefferson City officials are planning a fancy...
Common Core Is More Like Curves Than Weight Watchers
Mike McShane, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is in the middle of an interesting blog series: “Dispatches...
Common Core And ‘Deep Understanding’
On the Brown Center Chalkboard, a blog produced by the Brookings Institution, Tom Loveless has a terrific post (not just...
Standards-Based Reform Lacks Evidence
This past weekend, I was featured prominently in a story by Elisa Crouch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the...
Part Five: The Smallness Of The Potentially ‘Hip’ Core
In Part Four, I wrote about how the number of jobs in Saint Louis’ “central core” fell dramatically in the last...
Part Four: The Smallness Of The Potentially ‘Hip’ Core
As I have reiterated many times during this series, Missouri’s taxpayers have ample reason to be skeptical of whether “hip”...
Part Three: The Smallness Of The Potentially ‘Hip’ Core
Last week, Kevin McDermott of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Political Fix blog wrote briefly about the “hip development” debate we...
