Remember This: The Charter School Destruction Playbook
Imagine you wanted to open a new restaurant, but in order to do so, every restaurant in a five-mile radius...
Here’s A Crazy Idea: Tax Yourself.
Versions of this commentary were published in the Springfield News-Leader and the Columbia Tribune. Longtime United States Senator and Chairman...
How Much Does Your Local Public School Spend?
It comes as a surprise to most people who don’t follow education policy closely that we have never really known...
Excellent: Legislature Passes Bill Holding Local Governments Accountable
Congratulations to Rep. John Wiemann and others for passing House Bill 271, a now greatly expanded bill whose original language,...
A Huge Win for Missouri Families
Thankfully, the Missouri Legislature has recognized that one size does not fit all when it comes to education. The House...
PACE Loans Are Out of Line
A decade ago, Missouri created the Property Assessment Clean Energy (PACE) loan program to help homeowners and businesses get loans...
Jackson County Assessment Facts, Part 3
This is the third in a series of posts on assessment practices in Jackson County, Missouri. It comes a mere...
Tides Turning Against TIF?
Public support is growing for efforts to protect local funding from bad tax-increment financing (TIF) deals, but will the elected...
Repeating School Spending History
I saw a meme once that said “Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it while those...
The New York Times Talks Property Assessments in St. Louis County
The New York Times had an excellent article on property taxation issues a week ago. The article had a nationwide...
We Have the Money. Let’s Expand Education Options for All Students
In the latest round of federal stimulus, Missouri will receive about $2 billion in funding for public education. Of this,...
More on the Earnings Tax
We have written several times about the earnings tax in recent weeks and its detrimental economic effects. On Tuesday, voters...
Should You Pay the Earnings Tax in Wildwood?
At a mayoral candidate forum last week hosted by the St. Louis Business-Journal, the topic of the St. Louis earnings...
St. Louis City’s Earnings Tax Is Not the Lowest in the Country
The earnings tax was one topic of conversation during a recent forum for St. Louis mayoral candidates. During the forum,...
Taxpayer Funded Lobbying Continues
One of the practices I have long been opposed to is governments using tax dollars to hire lobbyists to lobby...
A Big Win for Taxpayers in Maryland Heights
As far as I know, the biggest defeat of a tax increment financing (TIF) package or similar tax subsidy (and,...
Will Boonville Repeat the Mistakes of St. Louis and Kansas City?
A version of this commentary was published in the Columbia Tribune. Tax-increment financing (TIF) is Missouri’s bad idea that refuses...
Tax Incentive Reform Getting a Fresh Look from Legislators, Too
My colleague David Stokes wrote recently in the The Star about Kansas City’s pivot toward local incentive reform, a move...
Tax Incentive Reforms Would Benefit Kansas City
A version of this commentary appeared in the Kansas City Star. Ulysses S. Grant was known to say that in...
Signs of Progress on Local Tax Subsidies in Missouri?
I am an optimist at heart. In my world, the glass is half-full, usually—more than ever during the pandemic—with tonic...
