Attention to detail often becomes more central to success when dealing with an issue or idea, rather than a tangible product or service.  Historic American Author Louis L’Amour said “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning.” This can be applied to politics in the sense that many corporations, small businesses, and associations may believe the work stops within the legislature or with campaigns. While keeping a pulse on legislative action can play a major role in all market sectors, many battles can be lost in the administrative rules process as well.  There are 187 state agencies in Missouri that write rules and regulations to implement the laws in Missouri Revised Statutes (RSMo) passed by the General Assembly or through initiative petition.

Twice a month, Missouri’s Secretary of State publishes the Missouri Register. This contains proposed rulemakings by departments and agencies that are then subject to public comment and a hearing.  With 24 editions and over 1200 pages of proposed rules and regulations over the course of one year, it is easy to see why attention to detail is so important. A major component of the rulemaking process is the role of the Small Business Regulatory Fairness Board (SBRFB), which is charged with ensuring state agency rules and regulations do not create an unfair burden for small businesses.

A recent example of this can be seen in a rule published in November of 2008 by the Department of Social Services (DSS) that required all MO HealthNet providers to contract with a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) at the request of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  On January 3, 2012, the Department of Social Services proposed to rescind this rule after the Missouri Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (MASCA) filed suit for not properly engaging the SBRFB to analyze the impact this would have on small businesses.  Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) add considerable value to Missouri’s economy, with a 2009 statewide economic impact of $841.5 million, including more than $42 million in tax payments and employment of 1,800 full time workers. Additionally, for every dollar spent in the ASC sector of the state economy, $2.35 worth of economic value is created in the state.¹

Patient safety and convenience is the centerpiece of the ASC business model, as surgery centers strive to provide high quality medical care at lower costs with lower infection rates.  A recent national study found that seven-day mortality rates were 25 per 100,000 outpatient procedures at ASCs, compared to 50 per 100,000 in hospital outpatient departments. ¹ Therefore, a regulatory mandate by the Department of Social Services for ASCs to contract with PSO’s could be a cost burden with little to no added value to the quality of care. Most importantly, the Department of Social Services skipped a vital step when they bypassed the SBRFB and neglected the impact this mandate might have on ASCs in Missouri.

This recent victory by the Missouri Ambulatory Surgery Center Association gives new meaning to free enterprise and quality health care in our state.  With a strong lobbying voice and regulatory oversight, all corporations, small businesses, and associations can prevent state and federal government from implementing costly requirements that could be passed on to consumers.  It is MASCA’s mission to continue advocating for free enterprise and competition in the legislative and regulatory environment that will lead to lower costs and high quality care for Missouri patients.

Link to January 3, 2012 edition of Missouri Register:

http://www.sos.mo.gov/adrules/moreg/current/v37n1/v37n1.asp

Source: [1] Oxford Outcomes (2010). ASC Impact Analysis.

Any voter or concerned citizen that wonders how state income taxes impacts their local business climate needs not look any farther than this legislative year in Illinois state politics.  High income taxes have exported more working taxpayer wealth than our entire Missouri State Budget ($23 billion) from 1995 to 2008.  That didn’t stop state politicians from raising it further, prompting concerns and/or likely moves from Caterpillar, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and Sears.

I traveled with Philanthropist Rex Sinquefield, a University of Chicago MBA Alumni, when he spoke on WGN’s Mike McConnell show last week.  As a retired entrepreneur whose investment business moved out of California, Rex Sinquefield understands how state tax policy directly impacts how businesses move and create jobs.  While Missouri is fortunate not to have politicians advocating for tax hikes today, Missouri is not well-poised to recover from this recession thanks to chronically-slow growth.  In fact, the Show Me State is one of only two states in the nation to never have a single decade of double digit growth in the last century.

MP3 of Rex Sinquefield on WGN’s Mike McConnell radio show.

There’s only one big reason to offer a constitutional amendment to permanently-end the tax on individual income:  to make Missouri competitive within our global job economy.  With the right tax policy, Missouri can apply its well-centered American position by giving you more of what everyone needs most – more in your wallet with every paycheck.  I hope that you will learn more from www.letvotersdecide.com or by following us by texting “MOREJOBS” at 41411.

Below is a press release from Let Voters Decide, our campaign to create real job growth for Missouri.  The process towards the Missouri ballot is long and hard, but there’s never been a more important time for voters to consider a better way for economic growth.   Since the Show-Me State is currently 48^th in the nation, the plan that we are on simply isn’t working.  When our state isn’t growing, it hurts everything that our state wants and needs to serve.

Contact:
Travis H. Brown, President, Let Voters Decide
(314) 540-5515

LET VOTERS DECIDE GATHERING SIGNATURES, GAINING MOMENTUM

October 5, 2011 (Jefferson City, Mo.) – The Let Voters Decide coalition recently announced significant momentum surrounding the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act. The Secretary of State approved the measure, a critical step in its journey toward the November 2012 ballot. The Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act will soon be circulated for voter signatures.

“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to circulate this petition,” said Travis H. Brown, president of Let Voters Decide. “The Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act finally gives working Missourians a say about our state’s unfair double taxation. By collecting 120,000 signatures, we can show that voters statewide care about a new way forward for Missouri’s economy.”

The goal of the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act is to phase out the individual income tax and replace it with a broad-based, consumer-driven sales tax. This means that Missourians would be taxed on those items that they choose to buy, not on the fruits of their labor.

“When you consider Missouri’s educated workforce and our ability to innovate, you would think our state would be thriving,” Brown said. “Yet the reality is that we have the third-worst GDP growth in the entire nation. This measure would make Missouri a better place for businesses and working families, which is why we believe people will be eager to sign our petition.”

Under the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act, the state sales tax would increase by less than 3 percentage points. The expanded sales-tax base would provide our state with greater economic stability, making Missouri more likely to retain and attract businesses. Importantly, the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act protects low-income families by exempting necessities (such as health care, child care and rent) from a sales tax.

“This is a common-sense approach that will provide all working Missourians with an immediate 6 percent pay raise,” added Brown. “We have a jobs plan worth doing, and through the initiative process, Missouri voters can move it forward. If passed, this measure will drive economic development and bring real, lasting growth to Missouri.”

For more information about the Let Voters Decide coalition and the Missouri Taxpayer Relief Act, visit www.LetVotersDecide.com.

While the City of Saint Louis will soon be 250 years old, the international sport of Chess dates back to at least 1500 years. That got several of our lobbyists and media experts wondering: is the professional idea of chess older than the idea of taxing one’s personal income?

The early forms of the game that became chess come from India before or around the 6th century AD. Some may claim that early civilizations that tithed by offering up their first fruits could count as a concept of taxing personal production. However, Wikipedia takes us to ancient China in the year 10 CE. Emperor Wang Mang slapped his Xin Dynasty with ten percent tax on all profits for professional and skilled labor. Without the benefit of facebook, twitter, or email, it took his citizens only 13 years to overthrow him and repeal such policies.

As chess spread into Persia, and later into Europe, so did the concept of taxing one’s income. If chess can be thought of as a professional sport that simulates the Art of War, then it’s financier with past governments in real war was often the income tax. At least that has often been the excuse, as Britain chose to do in preparation for the Napoleonic Wars in 1798.

Eighteen years later, the war income tax did get repealed, but, true to some halls of government, its memory was not forgotten. Meanwhile, by 1851, London gave the world our first modern chess tournament than was won by a German. Dueling tournaments across European countries helped shape chess as a sport for all kingdoms, cultures, and ages.

Ten years later, America imposed its first personal income tax for, well, you guessed, war again.

The Revenue Act of 1861 charged 3% off all incomes over the near equivalent of $20,000 or more in today’s terms. The fledgling State of Missouri also imposes its first temporary income tax which was quickly-repealed after the Civil War.

As civil war moved to reparation and reconstruction in America, here came the World Chess Championship of 1886 where four matches were played in Saint Louis. This international event featured the civic rise of our great city at a time without any city earnings tax, or tax on a professional athlete’s income.

With prosperity in American from the 1880’s to the 1910’s came a surge in chess as a sport again.

A curious political series of turns then concluded by 1913 with the 16th Amendment that gave Americans their first peacetime income tax. At the State level, Missouri’s income tax table was later applied from the Great Depression time when no one ever expected to have income, in 1931.

As the rules on taxing income shifted when the “wars on prohibition” demanded more government revenues, so did the popularity and focus of the game of chess within the Show Me State.

So, the origin of chess and income taxes may be hard to compare, but their justifications and use between war and peacetimes has certainly been cyclical over the generations. Saint Louis City and Missouri itself may prove pivotal to the next chapter of both subjects, as the City opens a new Hall of Fame while the State tries to end its personal income tax .

In one of our next blogs, we will compare tax tables to chess moves in the context of contemporary history to explore this subject further.

Before jumping to conclusions about the impact of the income tax on a state’s economic performance, let’s look at the facts and the data. How have the economies of Missouri and Tennessee performed over the last ten-plus years?

Let’s start by looking at the gross state product (GSP) as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). In 1997, Missouri’s GSP was $157 billion and Tennessee’s was $153 billion; in other words, Missouri’s economy was 102.82% of TN’s. By 2008, just before the financial crisis, Missouri’s economy had grown to $241 billion while Tennessee’s reached $248 billion. In other words Missouri’s economy is now 97.25% the size of Tennessee’s, suggesting that Tennessee grew faster than Missouri during the past 11 years. This is in fact the case, as can be seen by computing the compounded average growth rates (CAGR) for Missouri and Tennessee. Over the last 11 years Missouri grew at 3.9407% per year while Tennessee grew by 4.4680% per year. The difference, 0.5273% per year, may appear very small but over time adds up to a lot. A tiny difference of half a percentage point per year compounded over 11 years has led Tennessee’s economy from being $4 billion smaller than MO’s, to being $7 billion larger. In other words, Tennessee’s economy created $11 billion dollars more wealth during the same 11-year period than Missouri’s did.

Headline numbers like gross state product (GSP) can obscure important facts because they aggregate and average a lot of data. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) breaks out detailed accounts such as private industry production, the government sector and the state and local government subcomponent. Therefore, looking at the subcomponents of GSP gives a more complete picture.

FFirst, let’s compare private industry growth. In 1997, private industry accounted for $140 billion and $136 billion in Missouri and Tennessee respectively. In 2008, these same numbers were $211 billion and $220 for Missouri and Tennessee respectively. These numbers imply compounded annual growth rates (CAGR) of 3.8090% and 4.5055% for Missouri and Tennessee respectively (a difference of 0.6965% per year). In Missouri, the private industry component grew slower than the GSP, suggesting that other components, such as the government sector, must have grown faster than average GSP. In contrast to this, private business in Tennessee grew faster than the overall economy in Tennessee, both of which expanded faster than Missouri’s GSP.

Second, let’s look at the state and local sector’s contribution to the GSP. It’s important to note that these figures include goods and services paid for directly by the state and local government and do not include transfer payments and other forms of welfare. State and local government accounted for $12 billion in both Missouri and Tennessee in 1997. By 2008, these figures totaled $21 billion and $20 billion in Missouri and Tennessee, implying a CAGR of 5.0897% for MO and 4.8562% in TN. This suggests that while both states’ economies grew, the government sector grew faster that did the GSP in both states.

Finally, it is worth looking at a few other measures, such as median incomes, population growth and median home values, all of which are reported by the Census Bureau and are summarized in the table below.

Over the last eight years, income per capita appears to have grown at basically the same rate in both states. While median home values appear to be growing more rapidly in Missouri based on CAGR numbers, home values are subject to a great degree of measurement uncertainty and are therefore much less telling than other measures. The only figure that really merits attention is the significantly more rapid rise of Tennessee’s population compared to that of Missouri. The difference in population growth over the past eight years is about 300,000 people in Tennessee’s favor – approximately the entire population of the City of St Louis.

While many possible differences between Missouri and Tennessee can be used to explain their different records of economic performance, it is impossible to argue with the data, which shows that Tennessee’s economy has grown faster than Missouri’s. It is also impossible to deny that taxes matter when individuals and businesses are deciding where to work or locate. Eliminating the state income tax in Missouri can make the Show-Me state a magnet for attracting individuals and businesses from across state lines.

In this short article, the data has demonstrated the superior economic growth rate of Tennessee: a no-income tax, pro-business state. The debate about repealing the income tax in Missouri is not a debate about how to replace the tax or what to exempt from taxation. The debate about repealing the income tax should be about how to best create an environment that fosters dynamic economic growth and job creation for Missouri in the 21^st century.

A recent article from knoxnews.com (http://blogs.knoxnews.com/humphrey/2010/10/pac-proliferation.html) puts the number of new political action committees (PACs) at 88 since the 2008 election and decries large donations made by corporation to various political leaders in the state. Amongst these large contribution recipients is Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey’s PAC, receiving $26,000 in August.

While in total dollar amounts the numbers may appear large, especially to those outside the political circuit, it’s important to put these numbers into perspective. For example, in the same time period a total of 1,027 new political action committees have been registered in Missouri and millions have been spent in 2010 on political advocacy in the Show-Me state. In similar fashion, large donations to individual candidates are not uncommon in Missouri, such as Tom Schweich’s receipt of $50,000 on November 1^st.

The fact that Missouri politics involves more money than Tennessee doesn’t make Tennessee’s politicians any less influenced by the power of dollars. In fact, no matter the amount, the report of any money being received by a political party is viewed as a negative event, and it is common to hear reporters denouncing the “corrupting power of money” in politics. Truly, what amount of money is too large when it comes to politics? At which point does money begin to unduly influence the process? Purists say a single dollar of political contributions is too much, but it’s important to put political spending into perspective to really understand the phenomenon.

Americans spent over $3.0 billion dollars last year on pet grooming (source: APPA, http://www.americanpetproducts.org/) – more than both political parties combined in all elections in 2010. Similarly, the video game “Call of Duty” sold over $350 million dollars in the first 24 hours after it was released last month – more than any political party received in  such a short time period  (http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/15/review-call-of-duty-blacks-ops-shows-games-can-beat-the-drama-and-action-of-movies/). While the dollar amounts involved in politics appear large when we think of them in terms of our own salaries or the cost of living, they pale in comparison to some of the aggregate spending amounts in the general economy. Money in politics may have an influence, but it is a tiny amount of money compared to the national spending on relatively unimportant items such as video games and pet care, not to mention the gargantuan amounts spent on health care or groceries.

The key to preventing corruption in politics as a result of campaign contributions is transparency, not limiting the amount people and organizations can give. Simply limiting the amount of money an organization or individual can spend does not make their point less valid or the political process less susceptible to influence. In fact, imposing campaign limits simply pushes more spending into less transparent routes as the phenomenal growth of 527 organizations demonstrates (527’s are limited in their advocacy to supporting issues, but have no contribution limits and only have to disclose their donors once a year). To try to limit a person’s political advocacy simply because we disagree with their position violates the spirit of the 1^st amendment. Unpopular speech, especially political speech, is vital to the health of a democracy, and the Supreme Court’s decision last year to uphold the right of corporations to political speech is a reaffirmation of this belief in our society.

While Tennessee has experienced significant growth in the number of PACs in recent years, the dollar amounts they have spent pale in comparison to the amounts spent in Missouri, and look microscopic in comparison to the huge amounts of money spent on seemingly unimportant goods such as pet grooming. As long as running political campaigns costs money, campaign contributions will be an important part of politics. It is in all of our interest to see that money given to politicians is given in a transparent way and reported in a timely fashion. When campaign contributions are transparent it is impossible to honestly speak of money corrupting the process, because in the end, when it comes to elections everyone is the same: we all have just one vote.

Next weekend, St. Louis, MO hosts the 2009 Major League Baseball All Star Game. The 80th mid-season exhibition will be the first MLB all star game held in Saint Louis since 1966.  The outcome will decide the home field advantage in the 2009 World Series.

Tuesday’s game will bring a sold out crowd to Busch Stadium, along with a weeks worth of events for baseball fans young and old including: All-Star Charity Concert (July 11), the All-Star Charity 5K and First Run (July 12), All-Star Sunday (July 12), the State Farm Home Run Derby (July 13th), and the Meet me in Saint Louis: An All-Star Celebration (July 11-13th).

You don’t even have to attend the game to join the fun with celebrity athletes.  MAB Celebrity Services, based in New Jersey, has come through big for Saint Louis by bringing some of the biggest hall of fame baseball players to Saint Louis.  This will give fans a unique opportunity to get autographs from the all time greats. Among those available will be: Steve Carlton, Bob Gibson, Red Schoendienst, Lou Brock, Tony Gwynn, Reggie Jackson, Ozzie Smith, Darryl Strawberry, and Cardinals legend Stan “The Man” Musial.

The MLB All Star game is not just a sports extravaganza, it also brings an economic boost our Gateway City.  In 2005 and 2006 the All-Star game brought in more than $52 million in economic stimulus to Pittsburgh and Detroit, respectively, and even more to Houston in 2004 ($65 million)!

Stay tuned for more event planning details over the next week.  Great baseball for a great baseball town. 

All rights reserved for the All-Star Game & Logo above are property of Major League Baseball. 2009

Long before I ever pondered the blurred careers as lobbyist, fundraiser, and promoter, I enjoyed my boyhood days on our family farm in Southeast Missouri.  We grew up walking soybean fields, baling hay, and adjusting to the natural seasons along the ole man river, the Mississippi.  I didn’t realize back then how much our lives ebbed and flowed due to the river’s edge.  Nearly every other spring, at some high water mark, we had to move our machinery and equipment out of the fields for fear of rising flood waters.

My mother, to this day, sees water as an encroachment, somehow bound to interrupt her way of life from time to time.  She lobbied against anything playing in the water, mainly because she was raised managing its limiting moves.  I had always heard about the great flood of 1973, when the levee adjacent to our bottom land broke under pressure to invade over 20,000 acres of crops.  I remember my father describing a levee hole nearly 100 feet deep and several hundred feet wide, littered with debris. It took bulldozers months to reform the banks.

Most years, flood damage was a commercial nuisance, not an immediate threat to our lives.  However, I witnessed the awesome force of flood surge truly in the Missouri flood of 1993, when an alleged 100 year event (just 20 years later) hit our entire region hard.  Since our home farm was in the Ozark foothills, we helped sand-bag the levees, rescue neighbors, and manage the anxieties.  However, my father was on the island the day that the levee broke.  It took less than six hours to fill up an entire 20,000 acre island with nearly sixteen feet of Mississippi River.

The story of tragedy always seems easiest to tell at the climax of its terror, rather than the loneliness it often leaves behind.  At the peak of Missouri’s flood pressure, armies of volunteers, Dan Rather CBS News, and the American Red Cross all joined our advocacy efforts.  However, the untold story that hangs with me now are all of the community faces that chose never to return.  Without a house on stable foundation, our neighbors’ heirlooms never were rebuilt.  Many retirees, the keepers of our local culture’s memories, never came back to Kaskaskia Island.

One year prior to this experience, I recalled the last lines of the movie “A River Runs Through It,” that seemed to sum up the immortality of my campaign for meaning:

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” – by Norman Maclean

9th Ward June 2009

Empty Lot

Recently, we saw the hostile water’s undertaker downstream in another town known for triumph over misery – New Orleans, LA.  We toured the Lower Ninth Ward extensively with a retired New Orleans police officer.  He rode out Hurricane Katrina with his dog just fine, but later had to evacuate by helicopter from his attic due to the federal flood protection failure in more than 50 places.

On August 29 this year, it will have been four years since our nation was humbled by this disaster.  I was stunned to learn just how far behind the politicians, wards, and school buildings were so long after our federal government tried to respond.  The pictures and video links (see video here) in this article remind me how important individuals, not institutions, are to restoring human progress.  Still today, the plight of each block varies dramatically by the conditions that each plot of land were dealt.  An estimated 40% of local citizens in this ward still haven’t returned.

New Orleans has never stayed completely down for too long, however.  I was inspired to witness the advocacy of many celebrity philanthropists, working with local charities and neighborhood associations.  At ground zero, a new concrete levee buttresses the new home construction of “Make it Right Foundation New Orleans.” Thanks to Missouri native Brad Pitt stepping forward to give voice on Larry King Live, the Charlie Rose Show, and the Today Show, new innovative storm-resistant structures are being erected.  Ellen DeGeneres is running a MIR homes challenge that even has a “Missouri Cares” team.

Musician's Village

Fats Domino Home

Even with such strong celebrity brands advocating for community change, in person you can see how many battles still lie ahead.  Less than five houses from Fats Domino’s personal residence, many homes remain in disarray.  The conception of musicians’ village, by Harry Connick, Jr and Branford Marsalis, has shown wonderful color and progress touring down Alvar Street.  However, many basic homes remain without targeted remodeling.

As an outsider to New Orleans, it’s plain to see how more celebrity giving could do more from individuals speaking candid about remaining needs on the ground.  Locals will easily offer up how frustrated and cynical they are waiting for a government institution to solve the problem.  To the other professional athletes, entertainers, & publicists wondering if this should be your cause, your brand advocacy is needed now more than ever.

It’s hard not to be bothered by observing such a stark gap between what America is, and what we believe it always should be.  So, it’s left us thinking about small ways that we can maintain a call to action.  Back in St. Louis, maybe a cajun crawfish boil meetup supporting these foundations?  Already in the works in less than a month.  Reaching out to educate others about today’s state of events – happening now.  A return visit to New Orleans with volunteers?  Definitely if we can swing it for a worthy local coalition.

Perhaps the water’s haunt can serve as our own personal reminder to always give back to others, regardless of who is watching.

Harry Connick Jr. Homes

Empty Chair Memorial

Future Pumps of NO

Ground Zero

FROM:http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2009/04/lobbyist-uses-twitter-to-bring-attention-to-campaign-finance/

JEFFERSON CITY — St. Louis-based lobbyist Travis Brown is using the social networking software Twitter to help track over-sized campaign contributions.

Brown, who Tweets at www.twitter.com/pelopidas, today kicked off a feature that ought to make The Turner Report quite happy: Brown will be Tweeting every time a donation to a Missouri politician or political action committee is filed with the Missouri Ethics Committee that is $5,000 or more.

Said Brown in response to an inquiry from the Political Fix:

“Now, thanks to the integration of proprietary technologies, we can help make public information a lot more friendly to use. This application shows just one small way how public disclosure can be improved with intelligent design.”

Interestingly, one of Brown’s first Tweets of an oversized contribution gives a hint that somebody out in the political world is working to try to change Missouri law related to campaign finance rules.

A group called the Missouri Accountability Project received a $7,800 donation from Kansas City bonding firm Gilmore & Bell on April 8. According to MEC filings, the PAC was set up in connection with an expected November 2010 campaign related to campaign finance.

Treasurer Louise Tonkovich said she didn’t know anything else about the PAC at this point.

(Speaking of Twitter, follow me at www.twitter.com/tonymess)