Special Taxing District Don’t Stop Coming
Thanks to the Walt Disney Company and the State of Florida, special taxing districts are in the news. Florida is...
Building Height Limitations Are Unwise
There is a controversy in Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza. A developer would like to build a nine-story building on...
Shoring Up School Choice Laws
Missouri families need access to multiple options for their children’s education, and this need has only become more pressing since...
Podcast: Raises for Teachers, Billions for Meta, and a New Stadium for the Chiefs
Patrick Ishmael, Susan Pendergrass and Elias Tsapelas join Zach Lawhorn to discuss the Missouri budget, a massive tax incentive deal...
Hail to the Chiefs! And Pay for Your Own Stadium
If you thought Tyreek Hill getting traded to Miami was going to be the last surprise Chiefs fans got this...
Honey, I Shrunk the City
It’s not exactly news that the City of St. Louis and the region as a whole have been losing population...
So Meta: New KC Data Center Heavy on Tax Incentives, Light on Jobs
Three years ago, I wrote in The Federalist about Amazon’s decision not to establish a New York City headquarters in...
The Missouri House Has Taken a Stand for Parents
It’s past time the Missouri Senate steps up to the plate and delivers for Missouri Parents. The House has done...
Did St. Louis City Improperly Collect the Payroll Expense Tax During the Pandemic?
Show-Me Institute analysts have written extensively about the St. Louis and Kansas City earnings taxes, but not quite as much...
Springfield Does Not Need a Land Bank
A version of this commentary appeared in the Springfield News-Leader. In government, nothing succeeds like failure. How else to explain...
When It Comes to The Land Bank, St. Joseph Should Get Out While It Still Can
A version of this commentary appeared in the St. Joseph News-Press. You are probably familiar with various versions of the...
You Will Accept This Welfare Check Whether You Want It or Not
The Section 8 housing voucher program is a well-known federal program that subsidizes rental payments for low-income households. It is...
Even Elon Musk Wouldn’t Support Missouri’s EV Tax Credit Bill
Electric vehicles (EVs) are gaining popularity in Missouri and across the country. Thousands of Missourians buy EVs each year; Kansas...
St. Joseph Should Privatize Its Sewer System
A version of this commentary appeared in the St. Joseph News-Press. The usual problems with water in St. Joseph, Missouri...
Land Bank History Unsurprisingly Repeats Itself
The Kansas City land bank was supposed to be better than the St. Louis version. Policymakers were supposed to have...
Colorado Governor vs. Income Taxes
Colorado Governor Jared Polis recently took a (perhaps surprising) stance against income taxes. At the Steamboat Institute’s Freedom Conference, Polis...
Property Tax Proposals in Missouri
Senator Mike Cierpiot is suggesting some changes to Missouri reassessment procedures as the state undergoes the biennial reassessment process. The...
In-Person Event: Critical Race Theory in Missouri (Kansas City)
Patrick Ishmael, the Show Me Institute’s director of government accountability, sent Sunshine Law requests to Missouri schools to find out...
Kansas City Needs a Patron Saint of Tax Subsidy Reform
Telling powerful people and groups they can’t have what they want is hard. St. Thomas More learned this by telling...
Missouri Special Election Results, Sunshine Trouble in KC and Back to School
Susan Pendergrass, David Stokes and Patrick Ishmael join Zach Lawhorn to recap this week’s special election, shed light on a...
