Show-Me Institute Podcast

Show-Me Minute Charter Schools Demand for Charter schools is at an all-time high. But that doesn’t mean your child necessarily has the choice to attend one. Charter schools are limited to students in Kansas City and St. Louis. But even in those areas, there are limitations. Is that fair? Currently, tens of thousands of students across the state are denied the chance at a better education. The solu...

In an election year, you can vote for anyone you choose. But if you’re a union government worker, like many police officers, teachers and firefighters in Missouri, the odds are good you have no choice at all. Imagine we voted for our public officials once and only once for a lifetime appointment. Would that be fair? In Missouri, once a union becomes the exclusive representative for a group of publ...

Show-Me Minute - Tax Subsidies Remember alphabet soup when you were a kid? And trying to make the letters into words? Lawmakers like to play with letters too…with tax subsidies. TIFs, CIDs, TDDs, the list goes on. But they have one thing in common. They give corporations OUR tax dollars. That’s money that we taxpayers could otherwise save and spend ourselves. And Missouri is one of the most genero...

Should hair braiders have to go through the same expensive and rigorous training as a cosmetologist? Attorneys for a group of Missouri women who specialize in African-style hair braiding say “no” and we’re back in court Wednesday appealing their case in federal court. We’ve discussed the importance of occupation licensing reform before and there’s no better example than Missouri’s licensing restri...

Show-Me Minute: Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) We have talked before about why raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. Because it hurts the very people it’s supposed to help. Business owners in Seattle reacted to the city’s new $13 an hour minimum wage by cutting hours for low wage workers. Overall income for those workers dropped $100 million! So if raising the minimum wage isn’t a good idea, wh...

Show-Me Minute - Seattle minimum wage It seems like a good idea. Raise the minimum wage so low paid workers will make more money. Their standard of living will rise, and the overall economy will benefit. But, sorry, the market doesn’t work that way, and now there is proof. A few years ago, the city of Seattle decided to raise its minimum wage from $9.47 an hour to $13 an hour at the start of 2016,...

For the first time in our state’s history, the Legislature has fully funded the education formula at a price tag of $3.4 billion, but will this additional funding be well spent? If the past is any indicator of the future it will probably include hiring more teachers, administrators, and staff through what’s called a “staffing surge.” A lot of people believe hiring more teachers and staff translate...

Brenda Talent joins KMOX's Reardon Roundtable on Friday, June 30, 2017 to debate important issues of the week including safety concerns with MetroLink, healthcare reform, and funding for MoDOT.

On Monday, June 26, 2017, the United State Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of a Columbia preschool that was denied a state grant to purchase scrap tires for their playground. What impact will the court's decision in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer have on religious institutions moving forward? Show-Me Institute's Michael McShane appeared on KCMO radio's Greg Knapp Show on June 28 to discuss.

Graham Renz, Policy Researcher for the Show-Me Institute, joins host Ryan Wrecker to explain if your tax dollars are being spent appropriately in the state of Missouri. Wrecker then transitions to a unique story about a Pennsylvania radio host who quit his job after the station told him he was not allowed to continue to talk down President Trump on his weekend Classic Rock show.

Show-Me Minute-Liberty At the Show-Me Institute, our motto is “Where Liberty Comes First”. But what does Liberty mean? It’s making your own decisions. Taking responsibility for your own actions. Lots of Missourians are willing to do that, but government refuses to do simple things to help people take charge of their lives. How about more school choice for parents and their children? And fewer gove...

Show-Me Minute: Transportation Kicking the can down the road was fun as a kid, but it’s not good public policy when you grow up. And that’s what our officials are doing with Missouri roads. Look, MoDot says I-70 desperately needs to be rebuilt, and the cost for that and other big projects will be in the billions of dollars. How about hiking the state’s gas tax? It’s one of the lowest in the countr...

Show-Me Minute: Transportation Development Districts (TDDs) Wouldn’t it be great to have someone else pay your bills? Too many private developers are doing just that…and Missouri taxpayers are footing the bill. Let’s say a developer wants to build a shopping mall. He sets up what is known as a TDD…transportation development district. He can then add to the sales tax in that area, and use that mone...

Listen to our 2017 Missouri Legislative Recap Telephone Town Hall. This recap includes discussion of the bills passed, and defeated in Jefferson City and what this means for our state going forward. This recording is from May 17, 2017. To learn more visit: showmeinstitute.org

Patrick Ishmael interviewed on campaign finance reform during an "Up In the Air" segment from 3-16-2017 in St. Louis.

3-16-2017 The Eagle - Tuohey on Criminal Justice Reform by Show-Me Institute

Brenda Talent joins KMOX's Reardon Roundtable on Friday, March 3, 2017 to discuss the policy proposals presented by President Trump in his first address to Congress, St. Louis mayoral race, and an increase to St. Louis City's minimum wage. Originally aired on KMOX on March 3, 2017.

Kansas City leaders want a four decade commitment from taxpayers, but have they earned their trust? Patrick Tuohey explains Kansas City's general obligation bond (GO bond) placed before voters on the April 4 ballot. Originally aired on KCMO on February 8, 2017 in Kansas City.

Listen to a recording of our first Telephone Town Hall from Thursday, January 12, 2017. We just released our 2017 Missouri Blueprint: Moving Missouri Forward, which presents 15 policy ideas covering a broad ranges of issues - from education to healthcare, from public pensions to union reform, and from tax policy to transportation. We look forward to discussing policy reforms that will help get Mis...

Show-Me Institute's Director of Government Accountability Patrick Ishmael appeared on KZIM-KSIM in Cape Girardeau on January 3, 2017 to talk about our "2017 Blueprint" for growing Missouri's economy. For more information on "2017 Blueprint" visit: http://showmeinstitute.org/publication/good-government-miscellaneous/2017-blueprint-moving-missouri-forward

Wendell Cox appeared on KCMO radio with host Mike Ferguson to discuss his new paper, "Kansas City-Genuinely World Class: A Competitive Analysis." Read the entire paper here: http://showmeinstitute.org/blog/local-government/kansas-city-genuinely-world-class

Show-Me Minute: Uber Ever had trouble finding a taxi? Me too. That’s why I used Uber on a recent trip to Texas. The ridesharing service was easy to use, comfortable and affordable. In Missouri, it may not have been possible at all. That’s because taxicab regulators in Kansas City and St. Louis don’t like companies like Uber and have filed suit to stop them. They control the number of cabs and pric...

Show-Me Minute "Growth" It’s hard to ignore an elephant in the room. But our leaders seem to be doing just that. Something’s wrong with Missouri’s economy. We are way behind most states in annual growth in goods and services. From 2001 to 2014, Missouri ranked 45th in GDP growth. It’s an elephantine problem, but lawmakers keep ignoring it. So how do we get Missouri moving again? How about cutting...

Show-Me Minute Education Savings Accounts If you try on a pair of shoes that don’t fit, should you have to buy them? Of course not. So why should you have to buy an education that doesn’t fit your child? Education savings accounts are a great way to customize your child’s education. ESA’s work like this. The money the state would normally pay to your child’s public school would go into an account...

Show-Me Minute - Health Care Know what a Rube Goldberg type of device is? It’s something that’s way more complicated than it should be…like health care. When you go to the doctor, do you know what it’s going to cost? Wouldn’t it be nice not to be shocked by the eventual bill? Reform is needed, not more of the same broken system…and direct primary care may be one answer. Under it, doctors assign cl...