Do You Hear That? It’s the Drumbeat for School Choice Getting Louder
In January 2011, Mike McShane and I co-wrote our first opinion editorial for a Missouri newspaper. At the time we...
“I Don’t Care What the Research Tells You”
Is Kansas City getting an adequate return on its investment in economic development? We’re skeptical. The research says it is...
Entrepreneurship in Missouri, Part 1: Techweek Masks Tough Times for Kansas City’s Entrepreneurs
Today is the final day of the Techweek conference in Kansas City. This week-long event fosters and promotes entrepreneurship and...
Counting Economic Development Jobs
H&R Block, which once messed up its own tax accounting, has a weird way of counting job growth. This may...
Auf Wiedersehen Kansas City, Guten Tag Vienna
Later this week, I’m hopping on a plane and heading to Vienna, Austria to give a keynote address on educational...
The Luxurious Intercontinental Hotel is Blighted?
For those trying to take Kansas City’s tax policy seriously, the discussion of blighting the luxurious InterContinental Hotel on Country...
KC’s $14 Million Grocery Bill
Kansas City is spending about $14 million on a grocery store in the Linwood shopping center. Is this really how...
Taxpayers’ Subsidy Skepticism Is Warranted
The Kansas City Star published a piece last week about subsidized development and its opposition in the region. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the...
School Choice: The Personal and the Political
Parents naturally want the best schools for their children. In Saint Louis and Kansas City, this leads many parents to...
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...
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. ...
The EDC Gets It Wrong
Last week we published a blog post in which we explained how Kansas City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) benefits from...
The Ballooning Cost of Streetcars
Last summer, the Kansas City Star tried to defend the city from the charge that it overpaid for its 2.2-mile...
Secret Streetcar Plans Unveiled, Raise Concerns
At a City Council meeting last Thursday (8/18), a group of rail activists presented what were once secret plans for...
“For It Is in Giving That We Receive.”
The quotation above, attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, might make a good motto for Kansas City’s Economic Development Corporation...
Developer Reportedly Ends Project After LCRA Vote
Steve Foutch is a Kansas City real estate developer who, at least before today, was pursuing taxpayer support to build...
Economic Impact Fallacies
David Martin over at The Pitch has a great piece about how the positive economic impacts of a Chiefs training...
Let Kansas City Be Kansas City
For our summer vacation, my daughters and I made a 4,000-mile trek through the desert southwest to San Diego and...
Uber and Kansas City Go at It Again
Kansas City hasn’t been the friendliest place for ridesharing/transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft. Although regulators in the...
Next Generation Networking Event in Kansas City
Registration and event details coming soon.
