Personal Income in Missouri Continues to Lag
Recent economic data reinforces an old story: Missouri’s economy is not expanding fast enough to substantially raise its citizens’ income. ...
A Labor-Day Salute to the Missouri Mule
Everyone knows the expression “stubborn as a mule.” More than a tired cliché, however, that is a doltish misperception, foisted...
Golden Parachutes for Bureaucrats
Joplin Superintendent C. J. Huff announced his retirement last month despite his contract expiring in 2018. A sunshine request from the Joplin...
Missourians Take to the Skies With Increasing Numbers
In 2014, total airline passengers grew at Missouri’s largest airports by just over 1 percent, reversing the losses over the past...
Nix The NIDs
A variety of innocuous-sounding names and acronyms are springing up like weeds in communities all over Missouri. They are a...
Missouri’s Airports Don’t Need Sales Tax Money
In August, Missourians will decide whether the state should increase the sales tax by 0.75 cents to fund transportation projects....
Michael Rathbone on Stadium Sweetheart Deals
Michael Rathbone talks about the fairness of public financing for stadiums. Currently, $24 million in taxpayer money is spent annually...
Monopsony: Why Teachers Should Support School Choice
On April 9, former journalist-turned-middle school teacher Randy Turner published a blog titled “A Warning to Young People: Don’t Become...
Monopsony: Why Teachers Should Support School Choice
Many credit the noted philosopher Voltaire with saying, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll...
2013: A TIF Odyssey
Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is marching onward in Missouri. Today’s Kansas City Star has a great editorial on a proposed...
David Stokes on KZRG
David Stokes breaks down the Tax Increment Financing District proposal before the City of Joplin. Stokes on KZRG.mp3
TIF Menace Growing in Missouri
Like monsters in a horror film, Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts keep coming back larger and more rapacious. Officials in...
Show-Me On The Radio Tomorrow
I will be talking with Chad and Josh on the Morning Newswatch on Joplin’s KZRG 102.9 FM at 7:10 a.m....
Joplin School District Right To Be Concerned About Super TIF
Officials for the Joplin School District are admirably asking some tough questions about a proposed Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district....
Donnybrook: Brenda Talent on KETC
Show-Me Institute Executive Director Brenda Talent was a guest on Saint Louis local roundtable discussion show Donnybrook on July 5,...
How Economic Freedom Helped Rebuild Joplin
Economic Freedom Project — This is the story of how economic freedom helped to rebuild Joplin, Missouri after a devastating...
Special Interests Inhibiting Joplin’s Recovery?
Remember the May 22 tornado that ripped through Joplin? There were 161 people killed and more than 7,000 residences destroyed. The Associated Press has...
TIF is Everyone’s Education Problem
Remember the school district in Kansas City that is asking for a tax increase because of lost tax revenue? Show-Me Institute’s...
Rebuilding, Not Rebranding
“Extreme Makeover,” indeed. After previously likening the project to a “developer’s relief act,” last Friday it appeared that the St. Louis...
Testimony on the ‘Aerotropolis’ Bill
On April 20, 2011, the Missouri Senate Jobs, Economic Development and Local Government Committee heard testimony from the public about...
