Patrick Tuohey
Show-Me Institute
Kansas City, MO, United States
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Past articles by Patrick:
The Kansas City Budget Amid Coronavirus
The City Council of Kansas City is currently debating its 2020–2021 budget. Mayor Quinton Lucas had suggested some worthwhile cuts but abandoned them pretty quickly. That was before the full weight of the coronavirus became evident. Now it is time for those cuts—and a whole host of other cuts—to be considered again. → Read More
There's no such thing as a free bus
Our national experience with large scale fare-free transit is not promising, and what we know about the specific plans to offer fare-free bus service do not instill confidence. → Read More
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 information about the two biggest cities in the Show-Me State. Both Kansas City and St. Louis still score well on housing affordability compared with other cities, but both cities are becoming less affordable over time. → Read More
Reining in Missouri’s Municipalities
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Missouri Attorney General is asking to be allowed to enforce portions of a 2015 law that Missouri courts initially set aside in 2016. The law at issue “set minimum standards for municipalities in St. → Read More
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 (KCATA) advocates for making bus transit inside Kansas City free. His piece is largely an emotional appeal, but then he offers this: → Read More
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 million in state tax credits is welcome. They may receive a smaller amount, perhaps as low as $5.7 million. While this is still an unnecessary amount of public participation in a private matter, it represents a better deal for statewide taxpayers. → Read More
Prop 13 Comes to Missouri
California’s Proposition 13 was enacted in 1978 as a reaction against high property taxes and some dramatic increases in tax assessments year over year. Prop 13 restricted annual increases in the assessed value of property, and state and local politicians have chafed under its restrictions for years—often blaming the proposition for their inability to raise revenue. Taxpayers, → Read More
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 St. Louis, is a reason to cheer. In short, the St. Louis County Tax-Increment Financing (TIF) Commission rejected a proposal to spend millions in taxpayer subsidies developing in a floodplain.According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: → Read More
Downtown Baseball? Show Us the Research
New Royals owner John Sherman is giving interviews extolling the virtues of downtown baseball. In a recent story published on Flatland KC, Sherman said: “Baseball creates more economic opportunity in denser areas versus suburban areas or less dense areas.” Unfortunately, he does not offer any evidence to support the claim. → Read More
Fighting Blight Can Help Address Crime
A new article from the Manhattan Institute details research that indicates addressing blight can have a positive impact on crime. While this is not a surprise—the broken windows theory has been around for decades—it shows concrete results for programs in Philadelphia and elsewhere.The Philadelphia LandCare (PLC) program was started when residents of a particularly bad-off → Read More
Bike Walk KC’s Fuzzy Math and Incorrect Claims
Kansas City leaders have been considering a proposal to spend millions on a bicycle master plan for the city. The effort has sparked controversy, and advocacy group BikeWalkKC’s executive director Eric Rogers appeared on KCPT’s Ruckus last week to discuss the matter. Host Mike Shanin asked about the number of people who commute to work in Kansas City and Rogers offered, “And → Read More
It Might Take Stan Kroenke to Reform Missouri’s Special Taxing Districts
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a great piece by Jacob Barker on an effort by the city of Wentzville to partner with a private developer to finance and build a rec center it has long wanted. The outrage is that the private firm is connected to Stan Kroenke, owner of the St. Louis Los Angeles Rams, perhaps the most hated man in the St. Louis region. → Read More
Even Kansas City’s Director of Economic Development Knows that CDFA’s Incentive Study is Bogus
If, despite all that has been written here and elsewhere about how Kansas City’s Incentives Study was a complete and utter sham, you still think there may be something to it, consider this additional item. → Read More
Some Good News Regarding Missouri’s Highways
The Reason Foundation just released its 24th Annual Highway Report, ranking Missouri’s highway system as the third best overall, behind North Dakota and Virginia. This is good news.According to the study, the assessment is based upon: → Read More
Plugging the Port Hole
A recent column by Dave Helling in The Kansas City Star called for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas to challenge Port KC, the city’s port authority, by asking for the resignation of the authority’s board of commissioners. Part of the reason was Port KC’s willingness to offer incentives to Google (a story we wrote about recently). → Read More
The Entirely Predictable Failure of Sports Teams Subsidies
The River City Rascals are taking their ball and going home. This was not entirely surprising as the team was operating under a one-year lease extension with the city of O’Fallon. According to the St. Louis Business Journal: → Read More
What’s Wrong with St. Louis Economic Development Incentives? Everything
Growing a business is difficult. Business owners who have successfully overcome all the usual obstacles have my respect. Policymakers can help entrepreneurs by making sure regulations are minimally intrusive, taxes are least disruptive, and the marketplace is open and fair.Unfortunately, that isn’t usually what happens in practice when government tries to help business. → Read More
An Open Letter to Waddell & Reed Employees
Dear Waddell & Reed employees,I read with interest a story in The Kansas City Business Journal that your company may be considering a move (back) to the City of Fountains. This is exciting, and the people of Kansas City would welcome you with open arms. According to the Journal, → Read More
KC’s economic development study parroted exactly what the city wanted
The following commentary also appeared in the Kansas City Star.Businessman John Wannamaker famously quipped, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” The same may be true for Kansas City’s economic development incentives, but when the City Council sought to study their effectiveness, the folks who benefit from the current → Read More
The Incentives Study that Wasn’t
I’ve published a number of pieces about the 2018 Kansas City incentives study. Links to those are below. All the clues that the study would simply support existing policy were in place, but even I was surprised by the process which produced a study of incentives that was anything but.The report on our investigation into the study is linked at the bottom of this post. → Read More