Lake Sun Leader Archives - Show-Me Institute

Convention Mania Spreads

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 10:00:00 +0000

In Heywood Sanders’ book Convention Follies, he writes about the failure of convention centers and hotels to lead to economic development—or even recoup the costs of the investments themselves. No sooner had we written about the same slim prospects for success in Kansas City than we learned of plans for a similar project in Camden County, Missouri. Thankfully, at least one local leader is skeptical.

Lake News Online was kind enough to publish our take on the matter. You can read more here.

The post Convention Mania Spreads appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Show-Me Institute In The News

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 10:00:00 +0000

We had a very busy first week of October for op-eds at the Show-Me Institute. The Missouri Record ran a piece on lessons for Missouri from the Chicago Teacher’s Strike by James Shuls and Andrew Wilson. The Sedalia Democrat and the Southeast Missourian both ran a commentary by Mike Rathbone about tax incentives for Ballpark Village. Finally, Lake News Online carried an op-ed by David Stokes (a.k.a., me) on the controversial Transportation Development District (TDD) and parking dispute near the Shady Gators and Camden on the Lake.

Listen in at 9:30 a.m. this Wednesday when I discuss the Ozark TDD on the Morning Magazine with Manny Haley on KRMS radio in Osage Beach.

The post Show-Me Institute In The News appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Missouri Higher Education Loan ATTACK

Wed, 21 May 2008 02:36:30 +0000

A disjointed editorial about MOHELA, Missouri’s pseudo-public student loan lender, appears in the Lake Sun Leader today. The author argues that somehow the lending agency is responsible for declining student performance in the University of Missouri system.

I have no love for MOHELA or the lavish payments I provide them from month to month. But I will never understand this notion that a college education should be free. It’s one thing to argue that MOHELA mismanages assets (there is a lot of evidence to suggest this is true), but another thing to argue that the lending agency does not provide affordable financing options to students with essentially no credit history (for example, MOHELA’s current rate of 3.80 percent on Stafford Loans is a full two percentage points lower than the prevailing 30-year mortgage rate for a $100,000 mortgage in Saint Louis). Perhaps part of the reason why MOHELA remains on the verge of insolvency is the public insistence on cheap debt for too long. (I love the anecdotal accounts of students using student loan money to buy cars and pay down credit card debt … apparently, though, that’s not why such funds are drying up).

But I wholeheartedly agree with the author that educational performance in the state is declining.

The post Missouri Higher Education Loan ATTACK appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Personal Property Party Cove

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:39:16 +0000

An article in the Lake Sun Leader (via Combest) discussed a new law requiring owners of storage facilities, such as marinas, to list the names and addresses of everyone who stores taxable personal property at their location, or face a fine. I have no problem with this law. If we are going to tax personal property, we have to do it as accurately as possible so that the taxes can be spread as widely, and low, as possible. Now, if you want to talk about removing the tax on personal property, I am all ears — but as it is now, this law is about enforcing the current system more accurately. And besides, with apologies to my boss, the last people in the world I want to see getting by without paying taxes are the powerboat owners in the Lake of the Ozarks.

The post Personal Property Party Cove appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

I’m Thinking of a State …

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:49:05 +0000

An op-ed in the Lake Sun Leader imagines a better Missouri:

Imagine businesses operating as responsible partners in making Missouri a leader, again, in areas such as research and development, in manufacturing, in education and not just in the service industries which pay the lowest wages with the fewest, if any, benefits.

Instead, one by one, Missouri manufacturers go overseas for cheap labor, including the pencil factory in Versailles.

The op-ed makes demands on so many fronts — taxes on businesses, health insurance, education ("Imagine that there is no brain drain from our universities") — that not only is the imagined state far from the current reality in Missouri, but it doesn’t describe anywhere else either. There are always trade-offs, and no state has a perfect record on all issues. You can’t burden businesses with high taxes to pay for everyone’s health care, then expect them to pour money into research and development at the same time. And when your entire population is educated at a state-of-the-art university, it won’t want to sit around making pencils in a factory.

The post I’m Thinking of a State … appeared first on Show-Me Institute.