There is no ballpark quite like Wrigley Field. Although I am a diehard Cardinals fan who passionately despises the Chicago Cubs, I can appreciate a truly great and historic ballpark when I see it.

Last weekend, I traveled to Chicago to see some college friends and visit Wrigley for the first time. I thought about driving, but that would have set me back about $100 in gas. I thought about flying, but airfare to Chicago was running above $250. I thought about Amtrak, but that would have set me back about $60 roundtrip.

Instead, I took Megabus to and from Chicago for a total of $21 roundtrip. That cost you, the taxpayer, next to nothing because private commercial buses receive an average federal subsidy of $0.10 per passenger per trip. Amtrak, on the other hand, receives an average federal subsidy of $57.04 per passenger per trip.

I personally don’t think subsidies are necessary and would willingly pay an extra 10 cents for my bus fare if federal subsidies were discontinued. Compared to Amtrak subsidies, however, the cost to taxpayers is negligible.

Through federal subsidies, intercity buses are partly exempt from the federal diesel fuel tax, paying 7.4 cents per gallon instead of 24.3 cents. Assuming that the bus got 4 miles to the gallon on the 300 mile trip to Chicago, Megabus would have paid $18.23 in tax to the federal government, but because of the subsidy, the company only paid $5.55. The company still paid the full state tax on fuel.

Commercial buses are a great example of the private sector stepping in to satisfy a demand that benefits consumers with a negligible burden on taxpayers.

I had an excellent trip because of Megabus. But next time I go to Wrigley, I better not see that silly white flag.

Residents in the Kansas City suburb of Grandview have just voted in favor of levying a 5 percent tax on hotel stays beginning in 2012. The city expects to net about $120,000 annually and plans to spend the increased revenue to attract tourists.

Although the vote has already taken place, Grandview residents should be aware of the potential effects of the tax on the city’s hotel industry.

In the suburbs of Kansas City, people have plenty of options to choose between competing hotels.  Because its neighboring municipalities levy the tax while Grandview does not, Grandview will be forfeiting its own competitive advantage when attracting potential guests.

This hotel tax could potentially lead to less people choosing to stay in Grandview as the city will no longer have its tax advantage.  That in turn could mean less revenue and less business for the city’s hotels.

We’ve previously covered the potential effects of hotel taxes in Jefferson City and Saint Louis County.

I’ve lived in St. Louis for 19 years now and I’ve used the area’s light rail system ten times … if that.   Some residents and tourists probably benefit from Metrolink, but it seems to essentially serve two purposes for most residents: subsidized transportation from a few suburbs to Cardinals games and from the airport to downtown.

That’s what it will do in Kansas City, too, at an estimated taxpayer burden of $2.5 billion.

The Kansas City Star reported that voters once again will have the opportunity to give their opinion on a taxpayer-funded light rail system this fall.  The plan calls for a three-eighth-cent sales tax that would generate roughly $1 billion over 25 years.

Combined with $1.5 billion from the state and federal government, the plan would create a network extending from KCI to the Waldo neighborhood.  It would also add commuter rail lines and streetcar lines downtown.

We’ve reviewed Kansas City Transit Plans in the past and determined that this sort of project would not lead to many net benefits for the city.  A taxpayer-funded light rail network would serve very few citizens and draw funding away from other, more effective methods of public transit.

And it won’t even run to the Chiefs’ and Royals’ games under the proposed plan.

A better idea would be furthering developing existing transit systems in Kansas City.  From a previous Show-Me Policy Study:

This study recommends that the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority contract out bus operations to private companies, which is likely to save 30 to 40 percent of costs. This, in turn, will allow a 50- to 60-percent increase in bus services, including several new bus–rapid transit routes. These improvements should result in far more new riders using public transit than would be gained from light rail — without increasing the cost to taxpayers.

Here is a link to our full policy study on Kansas City transit and some previous thoughts on light rail in Missouri.

Residents in the Kansas City suburb of Grandview will vote tomorrow on imposing a hotel tax of five percent in order to promote tourism. The city estimates that the vote will net an additional $120,000 in revenue from those staying overnight in the town.

Take a moment to check out the two commentaries my colleague David Stokes has published on hotel taxes: here and here.

This time last year I was considering buying a laptop for my first year at college. I decided to wait until the sales tax holiday. Normally, I would have purchased the laptop at Best Buy in St. Peters. Because St. Peters opted out of the holiday and charged the full local sales tax, I decided to cross the river and purchase my laptop in Saint Louis.

The Department of Revenue (DOR) announced that 169 cities, 50 counties, and 62 special districts will opt out of the sales tax holiday this August 5-7. The opt-out will require consumers to pay local sales taxes as enacted by the municipality or county but will leave the exemption on the 4.225 percent state sales tax in place.

But what’s the point of a sales tax holiday if municipalities can opt out?

The resulting dissimilarity in tax rates among Missouri’s municipalities distorts consumer behavior and impacts local vendors unequally. For example, vendors in municipalities that have enacted local sales taxes and have opted out will suffer because local consumers will purchase goods in neighboring municipalities that offer the full exemption. In my case, the local Best Buy lost my business due to no fault of its own.

For all price-conscious college students, we offer the following lists of cities, counties, and special districts to avoid.

Be sure to check out previous Show-Me Institute opinions about the sales tax holiday.

The Post-Dispatch revealed this weekend that after an embezzlement investigation into Brentwood City Administrator Chris Seemayer, police discovered that Brentwood firefighters were allegedly paid “sham overtime” for 24 years.

Would it surprise you to learn that the State Auditor does not have the jurisdiction to audit the Brentwood Fire Protection District?

According to the State Auditor’s website:

The State Auditor’s office does not have original jurisdiction over most local governmental entities except school districts or counties with no county auditor. Therefore, the only way the State Auditor’s office can obtain jurisdiction to perform an audit in these areas is either through the petition process, or through a governor’s request.

This year, the Brentwood Fire Department has been allotted $2,190,664 from the city budget. The Post-Dispatch alleges that anywhere between $12,000 and $28,000 was misused every year.  The city could hire an independent auditing firm to investigate, but various firms have missed this is in the past.

If Brentwood residents want the State Auditor to review how their taxpayer dollars are spent, residents must petition for an audit. According to Ch. 29.230 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, the petition requires a minimum number of signatures. In Brentwood’s case, the petition would need 15 percent of the total number of ballots cast for a gubernatorial candidate in the most recent election.

In the 2008 General Election, 4,805 of the 5,738 registered voters in Brentwood cast ballots, according to information provided by the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners.  Some of those ballots may not have included votes for a gubernatorial candidate, but, assuming that they did, 721 registered voters must sign the petition to trigger an audit under state law.

For additional information regarding an audit request, please visit the State Auditor’s website by clicking here.

Hundreds of St. Charles County residents received a surprise letter from the Department of Revenue (DOR) this week — requiring them to pay several hundred dollars in sales tax on vehicles purchased one, two, or even three years ago.

In a recent audit, the city of O’Fallon discovered that the license office had undercharged residents for the sales tax due on their motor vehicles. Now, DOR has billed many residents for the difference in what they paid and what they should have paid in taxes. (Even three years later, the DOR may legally assess these taxes under Chapter 144 of the Missouri Revised Statutes.)

This case is an example of how inefficient government bureaucracy results in undue burdens on citizens.

To a family hit hard by the recession, several hundred dollars can be difficult to come up with on short notice. This isn’t a case of citizens paying their fair share; it’s a case where a relatively minor governmental mistake can have unexpected and burdensome consequences on individuals.

Sales tax rates in Missouri differ from municipality to municipality because the total is comprised of special, local, and state sales taxes. While there is a general state rate of 4.225 percent, each municipality may charge its own additional rate. On top of that, special taxing districts within a municipality may impose relatively small sales taxes for specific purposes, causing sales tax rates to differ block by block in some areas.

In this case, the multiple layers of taxing authorities did not properly communicate and failed to charge residents the correct amount.

It is unclear who exactly made the error, but it likely occurred because of outdated maps that did not reflect O’Fallon’s recent annexations. Many vehicle owners were charged sales tax rates for unincorporated St. Charles County, when, in fact, they lived within O’Fallon’s city limits. When they paid the sales tax on their vehicles, the licensing office apparently acted on incorrect information.

According to Tom Drabelle, O’Fallon’s Director of Public Relations:

“It is very possible some of the maps being used by the local office, maybe even the state, weren’t updated as they should have been with all the annexations that took place and the changes that occurred literally on the fly sometimes.”

Because of confusion at different levels of government, hundreds of Missouri taxpayers are forced to bear an immediate burden. For more information, please see the article on KSDK’s website.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has once again changed its policy regarding private airport screeners — this time allowing airports across the country to apply to opt out of using the TSA and hire private security firms instead. We followed this before, when in February, the TSA announced that it would not allow any additional airports to opt out. Springfield-Branson Airport was one of the airports denied the use of private screeners under the old policy.

Springfield-Branson has been invited to reapply for permission to use private screeners and join Kansas City International Airport as one of the current 16 airports that contract private security firms.

The new application process has more requirements than it did before February, but hey, it’s a good start. Having private security firms provides competition for the TSA and that’s good because it boosts efficiency and cuts costs.

My colleague David Stokes put it best in a blog post earlier this year:

“The very existence of competition brings a greater degree of efficiency to the TSA, even if it continues to do the screening in the vast majority of American airports . . . but if the presence of competition in a small number of airports serves to reduce the TSA’s complacency, that benefits all of us.”