On Nov. 9, the Washington Missourian published a letter to the editor in which I wrote that the Missouri School Boards’ Association (MSBA) uses your tax dollars to fight for keeping your taxes high.

Well, as you might expect, MSBA took issue with my letter. The funny thing is the part of the letter with which they took issue.

Was it my claim that MSBA is gearing up to battle against tax cuts in the next legislative session? No.

Was it my claim that they are hosting a series of anti-tax cut meetings? No.

Was it my claim that they hadn’t invited anyone who is pro-tax cuts to the meetings or that they are not interested in a debate on the issue? No again.

Was it my statement that our tax dollars go to MSBA to fund their efforts to keep our taxes high? Sadly, no.

Carter Ward, executive director of MSBA, took issue with my claim that I would have had to join MSBA if I had been elected to the school board. He wrote, “The decision to join MSBA is made by local boards of education as a whole and is voluntary. No school board in the state is required to belong to MSBA or to spend any money with the association.” Of course, state statute requires every school board member to undergo training that only the MSBA can provide, but never mind that.

He went on to claim that Missouri is a low-tax state and cutting our taxes further would be a “recipe for disaster.”

There you have it, MSBA thinks your taxes are low enough and they will fight to keep it that way.

The post MSBA Verifies That They Are Fighting To Keep Taxes High appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

One eyebrow-raising tidbit from the article was the motion that a city counselor used to try (successfully) to get the judge to dismiss the case. The counselor claimed that because the plaintiff had not been charged with violating the ordinance, he had no standing to sue. The judge agreed, and forced the plaintiff to pay court costs. If I were him, the first thing I would do after leaving court is drive my car right through a red light camera intersection and wave to the camera.

There are also many other red light camera blog posts here at Show-Me Daily, available for your perusal.

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Now, being away at college and working in the Clayton office of the Show-Me Institute every day, it’s not surprising that I can forget my roots. So, when checking John Combest today, I was surprised to see my li’l old hometown, Washington, Mo., smack on top of today’s news. Washington’s newpaper, The Washington Missourian, has gone green and officially supports Proposition C — the Missouri Clean Energy Initiative.

Though the article is, not surprisingly, lenient toward the proposition (it claims there is no downside, even though rates will initially rise by a small percentage), it is good to know that even the people in my small hometown are taking time to find the best solution to the energy situation. Honestly, I guess the move toward renewable energy is not too surprising, considering just how many people in WashMo can see the Labadie coal plant from their backyards.

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My colleague Dave Roland argued a short time ago that Mr. Ferguson should be allowed to develop his property however he sees fit, and the issues that might arise out of that could be dealt with later. I believe that the people of Franklin County have chosen, in a democratic fashion, to enact a planning and zoning system, and there is nothing wrong with requiring developers to go through that process, even if the process might go to far (if it does, that is a legitimate thing for the courts to decide).

There are clearly reasons why the commission has decided that this development is not right for Franklin County. These reasons likely come down to the effects and costs it will have on people outside of the immediate development area. If the people in Franklin County want to change this, they can elect people who want to get rid of planning and zoning entirely. (Charges that this is some kind of Potemkin Court, and that the good ol’ boys network is out to get someone, are going to be ignored here.)

At a previous eminent domain forum — the arguments from which apply just as well here — a supporter of eminent domain made an absurd statement and left himself open to withering counterattack when he said we need things like eminent domain for private purposes because he “believed in order.” (A very close paraphrase.) Well, his opponent retorted that he believed in freedom, including the freedom not to sell your property if you don’t want to. Well, I have no such concern with order when it comes to issues of property development — and I believe in freedom, too. But I also have a respect for democracy. If the people of Franklin County have chosen a system of planning, residents should either work within the system or work to change the system. The obvious counterargument to this would ask: What if democracy violates a fundamental right, like Jim Crow laws that prevented African-Americans from voting? Of course, there are issues like this that you should never leave to majority rule — but, without going any further, I don’t think zoning rises to that level at all.

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The Star series said at the standard 60 degrees, a 231-cubic-inch
gallon of fuel delivers a certain amount of energy. At 90 degrees,
however, the same gallon expands to more than 235 cubic inches. Because
consumers are still buying 231-cubic-inch gallons, "hot fuel" forces
them to spend more to obtain the same amount of energy.

According to the editorial, this legislation would help save Missouri motorists $15 million dollars annually, because it would require gas stations to install automatic temperature-compensating equipment in all retail gasoline
station pumps. The updated technology would adjust the price of gasoline as it
expands during warmer temperatures.

As a previous post discussed this same issue, supply and demand efficiently determines the retail price of gasoline in a competitive market — bidding down the price slightly when temperatures have temporarily expanded supplies. In general, motorists don’t think about the energy output that a
gallon of gas gives their cars, because that information isn’t relevant in deciding where to buy gas. Focusing on the price per gallon at one station in comparison to a nearby station helps fuel consumers much more than figuring out price per energy-output-unit at varying temperatures. Websites can also help consumers compare the cost of gas.

These new regulations would produce is higher fuel prices for consumers that would amount to much more than the $15 million dollars that "hot fuel" is ostensibly costing consumers in Missouri now. Rather than trying to find short-term relief through short-sighted legislation, we should encourage market-based technological solutions in our search for a way to reduce consumer energy costs.

The post “Hot Fuel” Legislation Is a Step in the Wrong Direction appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Schlafly, a history buff, noted that legislators took this action in the presence of of the Great Seal of Missouri, on which the state’s offical motto is written — in Latin — Salus populi suprema lex esto (The welfare of the people shall be the highest law.)

How would a proposed amendment effect (sic) Missouri’s official motto?

Despite the fact that our state motto is in Latin, we don’t see legislators conducting debates or cities holding meetings in Latin. They use English instead.

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