What I Saw at the TIF Hearing
Anyone who has been paying attention to the Show-Me Institute over the past few years knows that our analysts are...
Branson Water Park to Soak Taxpayers
Imagine someone knocking on your door with a business proposal. He and his partners want to build on the vacant...
Is This How Trust Is Regained?
After voters rejected implementing a local use tax in November, the Columbia City Council made it their mission to win...
TIF Doesn’t Create Jobs
Paul F. Byrne, a professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas—who has examined tax increment financing (TIF) use in Missouri...
Broadway Economics
The Broadway Inn is convenient for all the universities in Columbia, and its owner wants to build a $20 million...
Is TIF Failing the “But-For” Test?
Tax-increment financing (TIF) is a development subsidy program abused all over Missouri, and especially in Saint Louis. See exhibit A:...
When Scoring a 60% gets you $16 Million
Bill DeWitt III, President of the St. Louis Cardinals, let the city know he was “ticked off” when he heard...
Kansas City Hires Fox to Watch Henhouse
According to the Kansas City Business Journal, the City of Kansas City has approved contracting with the Council of Development...
Subsidies in St. Louis, Part 2: Economic Development Blunders
City officials, developers, and corporate welfare proponents have touted the benefits of development incentives like tax-increment financing (TIF) to taxpayers...
What an Honest Economic Development Study in Kansas City Might Conclude
A July piece by Steve Vockrodt for The Kansas City Star talked about the city’s efforts to study the real...
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...
What’s a Nice TIF Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Public subsidies have taken on an increasingly prominent role in new developments across the St. Louis region, and KP Development...
Will TIF Reform Slow Development in Maryland Heights?
Developers, including Stan Kroenke, are seeking millions in TIF to build a vast retail, commercial, and residential district in a...
Rolla Considers TIF Plan
In January, the Phelps County TIF Commission began a series of public hearings to foster discussion about bringing the Westside...
The Negative Impacts of Development Subsidies
The Kansas City Star’s Joe Robertson has written recently about the closure of the Kansas City office of the National...
Session Notes: TIF Reform Gets Approval, But More Needs To Be Done
In a victory for good governance, the Missouri legislature passed important tax increment financing (TIF) legislation, which I wrote about at...
TIF Reform Legislation Races Into the Homestretch, But the Clock Is Ticking
Thanks to robust bipartisan support and assisted by a strangely-timed development proposal, the Missouri legislature is on the verge of...
As Expected, KC Renews Its Earnings Tax
For the second time in five years, Kansas City has voted to retain its earnings tax by a substantial majority....
TIFs Fail to Meet Expectations
Steve Vockrodt over at The Pitch has an excellent column about how taxpayer subsidized development projects often underperform their goals. He writes...
Kansas City Star Editorial Board Gets Subsidies Wrong Again
The Kansas City Star editorial board published the following in a piece on the earnings tax on January 28: A spokesman for the...
