Serious TIF Reform May Be in the Cards in 2020, With A Tweak
As we’ve often noted, tax-increment financing (TIF) in Missouri drains millions of dollars from legitimate government uses every year, often...
A Tired Tale of Incentives
According to an article from the St. Louis Business Journal, the developers behind the Iron Hill complex (a 14-acre development...
Trolley Delusions, or: How to Fill the Abyss with Other People’s Money
Sometimes, different people look at the same data but draw very different conclusions. The head of the Loop Trolley Company,...
Beating A Dead Trolley
A plan to keep the Trolley running for four more years under Metro’s guidance received no supporting votes during a...
Good News on Housing Affordability in Missouri
Forget the Academy Awards, the 16th annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey has just been released! It has some great...
The City-County Line Remains a Barrier to a Good Education
KSDK has a great interview with Chester Asher, CEO of Northside Community School, a charter school in St. Louis. Northside...
About That “Economic Impact Study” Conducted on Free Bus Service in Kansas City . . .
In a January 26, 2020 column for The Kansas City Star, the CEO of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority...
The MLS Deal Keeps Getting Better for Taxpayers
Recent news that the owners of a new Major League Soccer franchise in St. Louis will not be getting $40...
Words Matter
Have you ever seen a word that you use all the time without thinking about it and paused to consider...
Why Does Missouri Make it So Difficult?
In Missouri, it may seem like school choice is only for Kansas City and St. Louis, since they are the...
A Win for Economic Development Sanity
There isn’t enough good news about economic development policy in Missouri. But a recent vote in Maryland Heights, just outside...
If You Build It, Will They Come?
Imagine that today you are put in charge of running MetroLink. In your first day on the job, this is...
Highest and Lowest Spending Schools in the St. Louis Area
When Congress updated No Child Left Behind (NCLB) with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, many hailed the...
St. Louis is Doing a “Poor” Job with Local Taxing Districts
“Poor” is never the rating you want. Unfortunately, that’s what St. Louis got in a recent audit of the city’s...
Graham Renz on the Marc Cox Morning Show
On Tuesday, Show-Me Institute Analyst Graham Renz joined KFTK’s Marc Cox Morning Show to discuss the application submitted to the Missouri...
St. Louis Ranks Poorly in Ease of Doing Business Study
Missouri and Missouri cities have ranked poorly in several business and policy rankings. Missouri’s position relative to other cities and...
Why Are Public Pensions Often Underfunded?
Defined-benefit pension systems are essentially promises. The government promises a specific benefit to beneficiaries when they retire. You would think...
St. Louis Ranked in the Middle in Ease-of-Doing-Business Study
The St. Louis Business Journal recently published details of a report that placed St. Louis in the top ten “untapped...
St. Louis Officials Recommend “Blight Designation” for . . . A Gated Parking Lot
When is blight not really blight? Apparently, when tax incentives are involved. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St....
Missouri School Funding Workshop: Location and Parking Details
Event Details: School finance policy is a foundational component of public education that directly affects all of Missouri’s students and...
