Ignoring 40 Years Of Failure, Legislature Passes Land Bank Legislation
Yesterday, the Missouri Legislature passed House Bill 1659, which allows for the creation of a land bank in Kansas City....
A Victory For Educational Choice
Though Missouri legislators may not accomplish much on tax credit reform, and are pushing forward misguided land bank legislation, there...
A Window For Kansas City Schools?
For years, Marisol Montero, newly-elected member of the Kansas City (Mo.) School District’s board of directors, has navigated the district’s...
The Kansas City Citizen’s Commission On Municipal Revenue
A Kansas City citizens’ commission that the mayor appointed recently released a draft report on changes to the city’s municipal...
Take the Land Bank Legislation. Please.
Last night, yet another piece of legislation received the “Kansas City Land Bank Bump.” Senate Bill 729, which began as...
Land Banking is Expensive
In the final week of the legislative session, Missouri legislators may vote on the creation of a land bank in...
Acts Of Land Bank Desperation
It was comical that Missouri legislators, apparently blind to irony, tacked a lengthy land bank bill onto a bill that...
If You Need A Subsidy In Chesterfield, Where Don’t You Need One?
Monday night, the Chesterfield City Council gave preliminary approval to a new outlet mall development that plans to impose a...
Taxes And TIF In The Liberty School District
Soon, Tax Increment Financing (TIF) may claim another win. And when that happens, taxpayers can claim a loss. Kansas City...
Depressing News From Ellisville
The vote of the five members of the Ellisville City Council in favor of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is just...
When Is a Transparency Bill Not a Transparency Bill?
When it’s used to hide unpopular legislation. On Wednesday, the Missouri House took an otherwise laudable government transparency bill and...
EEZs Are An EZ Path To Corporate Welfare
In a very funny 1983 episode of “Family Ties,” the father, Steven Keaton, reads an FBI file describing his mild...
Revisionist TIF History From Columbia’s City Manager
The Columbia Missourian has published an overview of the statewide use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a development subsidy that...
Why a Whopping Increase in Missouri’s Cigarette Tax Is a Bad Idea
While growing up in the small border town of Atchison, Kan., my father, uncles, and family friends made frequent trips...
Power & Light District Gets A Wall Street Journal Feature, With Predictable Results
For our regular readers, the fact that the Kansas City Power & Light District (P&LD) is hemorrhaging taxpayer money is no...
TIF Gives Cities An Unfair Advantage Over Other Governments
Would you like to be able to unilaterally take some of your neighbor’s money and spend it in ways that...
Another Company Leaves Missouri For Kansas; Time To Stop The Madness
The Kansas-Missouri border war has led to yet another tax incentive-fueled move. The big winner this time? Teva Neuroscience, which...
The Post-Dispatch’s $4 Billion Tax Hike
Missouri’s major dailies have had quite a run over the past few days. Last week, the Kansas City Star told...
Double Trouble: Kansas City Considers Extending Trolley Line To Plaza
It seems like only yesterday that I was calling Kansas City’s trolley plans a slow motion train wreck, yet the...
The Main Street Trolley: A Slow Motion Train Wreck
If City Hall has its way, Kansas City will have a $100 million streetcar on Main Street in the not-too-distant...
