We Shouldn’t Finance A New Stadium To Keep The Rams In St. Louis

Last week Gov Nixon took steps to try to keep the Rams NFL franchise in the St. Louis region:

Two civic leaders who played major roles in bringing the Rams to St. Louis have been tapped to play  similar roles in trying to keep them here.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon discussed the future of the football team  during a teleconference this morning.

Nixon is giving attorney Bob Blitz and former Anheuser-Busch executive Dave Peacock 60 days to develop options to be presented to the Rams before Jan. 28, when the team is scheduled to announce if they’ll convert their Edward Jones Dome lease to year-to-year. (KMOX)

I have no doubt the Rams will go year to year, recently readers agreed (see Readers: St. Louis Rams Will Opt Out Of Dome Lease). They’re going to want a new stadium somewhere, no incentive to lock into an old facility for another decade.

It appears many think it is important to keep an NFL team here — at taxpayer expense.  I’m all for investing in the region, but only those investments with a high rate of return. For example, historic rehab tax credits.

From 1997:

Sports facilities attract neither tourists nor new industry. Probably the most successful export facility is Oriole Park, where about a third of the crowd at every game comes from outside the Baltimore area. (Baltimore’s baseball exports are enhanced because it is 40 miles from the nation’s capital, which has no major league baseball team.) Even so, the net gain to Baltimore’s economy in terms of new jobs and incremental tax revenues is only about $3 million a year—not much of a return on a $200 million investment. (Brookings Institute — Sports, Jobs, & Taxes: Are New Stadiums Worth the Cost?)

From 2012:

This is an altogether too common problem in professional sports. Across the country, franchises are able to extract taxpayer funding to build and maintain private facilities, promising huge returns for the public in the form of economic development. 

For instance, just three of the NFL’s 31 stadiums were originally built without public funds. In two of those cases, public funding was later used to upgrade the stadium or surrounding facilities, even as all 32 of the NFL’s teams ranked among Forbes’ 50 most valuable sporting franchises in the world in 2012. (Only MetLife Stadium, shared by the New York Jets and New York Giants, received no public funding.) (The Atlantic — If You Build It, They Might Not Come: The Risky Economics of Sports Stadiums)

Study after study confirms that public financing of major sports facilities is bad economic policy. I get it, we have people here that like football. For this to make any sense we’d need a team to attract significant new money from outside the region more than a dozen times per year. If Kroenke wants to build a stadium somewhere in the region on his dime then great, otherwise thanks for the one Superbowl win in the last 20 years. Best of luck wherever you end up.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Should Missouri have a law like Oregon’s ‘Death with Dignity Act’?

Last week you probably heard about the terminally ill woman in Oregon who ended her own life:

Brittany Maynard, who became the public face of the controversial right-to-die movement over the last few weeks, ended her own life Saturday at her home in Portland, Oregon. She was 29. (People)

Once diagnosed she moved from California to Oregon to be able to end her life on her terms.

On October 27, 1997 Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act which allows terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act requires the Oregon Health Authority to collect information about the patients and physicians who participate in the Act, and publish an annual statistical report. (Oregon Public Health Dept) 

Her death has sparked a new debate about the right for terminal patients to end their lives. The poll question for this week asks if Missouri should have a similar law to allow those who are terminally ill to end their own lives on their terms? The poll is in the right sidebar on the desktop view.

— Steve Patterson

Election Day: Are You A Voter or Nonvoter?

Election day is finally here, please be sure to vote!   Here’s a look at the turnout in the City of St. Louis from four different elections:

• August 2014 Missouri Primary: 35,540 ballots (20.29%) of 175,178 registered voters
• March 2013 Municipal Primary: 44,399 ballots (22.08%) of 201,050 registered voters
• November 2012 Presidential: 144,537 ballots (74.04%) of 195,222 registered voters
• November 2010 Midterm: 91,449 ballots (48.52%) of 188,480 registered voters

If only our turnout was as high for every election as it is ever four years for president.  Thankfully the folks at Pew have been looking into voter participation:

Nonvoters are younger, less educated and less affluent than are likely voters. More than half (54%) of nonvoters have a high school diploma or less, compared to 28% among likely voters. Nonvoters are also far less likely to have a post graduate degree (5% of nonvoters, 17% of likely voters).

Low education levels and low incomes go hand-in-hand: 46% of nonvoters have family incomes under $30,000, compared with just 19% among likely voters.

A much higher proportion of nonvoters identify as racial or ethnic minorities than voters. Only 6% of likely voters identify as Hispanic or Latino, compared to 23% of nonvoters. Three quarters (77%) of likely voters are white, compared with just 55% among nonvoters.

Fewer nonvoters than voters are affiliated with a religion. Among voters, 21% identify as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular”; among nonvoters, it’s 27%. (Pew Research — recommenced reading)

Some suggest we should follow other countries and require every eligible citizen to vote.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Laws Requiring a Photo ID to Vote…

Midterm elections are Tuesday, which got me thinking about one of the most contentious topics of the last few years; efforts in many states to require voters to produce photo identification to receive a ballot. On one hand advocates say it cuts down on voter fraud, the other hand saying it disenfranchises voters, especially minorities. Neither Illinois or Missouri require a photo ID.

From Ballotpedia:

• Illinois: Two forms of identification are needed, with at least one showing the voter’s address. Valid identification includes photo and non-photo ID. Voters using Early Voting must provide a photo ID, such as an Illinois driver’s license, state ID card or a U.S. passport.
• Missouri: Voters must present a document to prove their identity. Valid documents include photo and non-photo identification.

The poll question this week asks your view on voter identification laws requiring voters to produce a photo ID.

— Steve Patterson

November 4th 2014 Ballot

The 2014 midterm election is just two weeks away. Depending upon where you live, the ballot varies. Everyone has US Representatives and State Representatives. Missouri voters, of course, have constitutional amendments. Most have the retention of judges.

For this post I looked at the sample ballot for all raves in St. Louis:

• State Auditor — three candidates, the incumbent will likely win.
• U.S. District Rep 1 —  three candidates. I like that the Republican challenger to Lacy Clay supports ending the War on Drugs and favors marriage equality, he also advocates eliminating the federal income tax, replacing it with a national sales tax — reason enough to not support his candidacy.
• State Senate Dist 4 — two candidates, the incumbent will likely win.
• State Rep, twelve districts: 66, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 91, 93
  • Three are uncontested: 76, 77, 84
  • No way would I vote to add to the Republican majority in Jefferson City!
• St. Louis Collector of Revenue — one candidate
• St. Louis License Collector — two candidates
• St. Louis Recorder of Deeds  — three candidates
  • The most interesting local race!
  • The Democrat, Sharon Quigley Carpenter,  resigned amid nepotism charges in July, but won the Democratic primary in August
  • Young Republican Erik Shelquist is seeking to become the first Republican elected to citywide office in decades.
  • And Independent Jennifer Florida, the former 15th ward Alderman, appointed when Carpenter resigned.
  • The real race is between Carpenter & Florida. Will voters go with the Democratic nominee even though she’d been in office for decades and  resigned in disgrace?
• Retain two Missouri Supreme Court judges
• Retain two Missouri Court of Appeals judges (Eastern District)
• Retain seven Circuit Court judges (22nd)
• Missouri Constitutional Amendment 3 — teacher evaluation
  • From the ballot language “Significant potential costs may be incurred by the state and/or the districts if new/additional evaluation instruments must be developed to satisfy the proposal’s performance evaluation requirements.”
  • This isn’t about improving the quality of education, it’s a union busting measure. The Kirkwood School Board voted to oppose this amendment, please vote no.
• Missouri Constitutional Amendment 6 — early voting… sorta
  • I fully support early voting, but not this way.The ACLU of Missouri called it a “sham early voting amendment”, please vote no.
• Missouri Constitutional Amendment 10 — budget power
  • The GOP Missouri Legislature doesn’t like the checks & balances from the Governor’s office, when it’s a Democrat in office.
  • “We believe this amendment could reduce the flexibility to make changes to balance the budget and make the process more difficult. We believe this amendment could potentially weaken the state’s strong governmental framework to make midyear budget adjustments, which in our view, could potentially lower the rating to a level in line with our indicative rating under our state scoring methodology.” — Standard & Poor’s
  • “Vote no on Amendment 10. It’s not conservative. It is short-sighted. It’s bad for business. It’s bad for Missouri.” — Post-Dispatch editorial
• St. Louis Charter Amendment — Veterans’ Preference, would give honorable discharged veterans hiring preference for civil service jobs

See the Post-Dispatch Voter’s Guide for races where you live.

— Steve Patterson