The CoMoBUZ Insider Briefing

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike takes a look at the upcoming election on Aug. 4 and the impact it will have on Columbia. An open seat from the fourth ward gets filled and will surely change the dynamics of the city council. And the fate of a proposed one-cent sales tax increase to fund public safety will shape the...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike takes a look at how Columbia’s renewable-energy policy is running up against the harder reality of an electric utility that has to solve issues with capacity, reliability and cost; reviews the Goldwater Institute’s lawsuit against the City of Columbia over the city’s revenue guarante...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike takes a look at how the City of Columbia spent a $3.2 million more to purchase energy from renewable sources than it would have had to pay just buying from the market, shares news of a massive new hi-rise student housing complex planned near the MU campus, has an update on the I-70 w...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike shares some opinion about the city of Columbia’s failure to engage with the public before walking it into the need for a one-cent sales tax increase, explains Amendment 5, the proposal to phase out the state income tax, and reviews the Columbia Police Department’s newly-issued 2025 r...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike takes a long look at the City of Columbia’s financial condition and how recent spending growth, utility indecision, public safety needs, pension obligations and management decisions have converged into a tax proposal and utility rate increases that are reshaping the cost of living in...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike explains the dustup between Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon and Secretary of State Denny Hoskins over Missouri’s newly-drawn congressional maps and the Aug. 4 primary election, Columbia utility advisors expressing concern about the quality of the city of Columbia’s forecasts for up...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike explains the threat of a lawsuit against the City of Columbia over the constitutionality of its revenue guarantees to airlines, takes a look at the city’s planned $2.57 million North Village Park, bring you up-to-date on I-70 construction, discusses the big rate increases the city ha...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike explains the Columbia city council’s two-week delay on a vote to place a sales tax increase on the August ballot; has an update on Boone Health’s new cardiology clinic, has the latest details on Columbia Public Schools’ lawsuit over Boone County charter schools, explains the city cou...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike gets to the bottom of the story about the break-up between Boone Health and the Missouri Heart Center, has an update on Columbia Public Schools lawsuit to stop public charter schools in Boone County, the latest on the demolition of the Providence Rd. bridge over I-70, and a looming c...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Mike discusses the city of Columbia’s use of revenue guarantees to airlines at Columbia Regional Airport, the city’s planned new one-cent sales tax for public safety, façade panels falling off a downtown student high rise, the electric utility trying to recover costs related to power purc...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week, Columbia Regional Airport is growing much faster than expected, and that’s forcing city leaders to confront new costs, new staffing demands and bigger infrastructure demands. Mike talked with airport Manager Mike Parks after a city council work session to discuss the airport. Also this we...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week it's another look at the break up at Boone Health between the hospital and its cardiologists with new documents and details, a review of the race for the Ward 5 seat on the Columbia city council and a conversation with the winning candidate, Christina Hartman, Boone County returning $...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week it's an analysis of the break up at Boone Health between the hospital and its cardiologists, a final look at the race for the Ward 5 seat on the Columbia city council, the Columbia Public School's win in the long-running Wayne Sells/Rock Bridge naming rights lawsuit, a City of Co...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week it's an update on the Ward 5 Columbia City Council election, including clips from interviews with both candidates, Boone County's proposed new building code changes, the lawsuit brought against Boone County by a former court marshal, and Jim Windsor's argument that the city...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week it's an update on Columbia's $500,000 plan to add private security "ambassadors" downtown, the city's struggle to regulate Airbnbs, a planned definition of data centers, the city's sleight of hand on disclosing its $1.5 million revenue guarantee to American Ai...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week it's an update on the city's six upcoming airport projects totaling $13 million, City Manager De'Carlon Seewood's communications overhaul, more I-70 construction disruption in the works, the city's unsigned deal with American Airlines and a proposed re-write on the...

Mike's quick, weekly no-nonsense look at civic affairs in Columbia and Boone County, Missouri. This week it's an update on the senior citizen tax freeze, a new price tag on the city's McKinney Building, I-70 construction, a financial report from Boone Health, questions about the city's revenue guarantee to American Airlines and the city manager's plans for a new "Comm...