The Show-Me Institute has several initiatives planned for the upcoming legislative session, but a few priorities stand out above the rest.

First, the Show-Me Institute will launch an informational Medicaid campaign during the legislative session. Medicaid expansion will likely be a ballot initiative this year, and both the public and elected officials need to understand the true cost of expansion and its likely consequences. As the program stands, expansion will cause massive budgetary issues that will affect other services and programs. Moreover, since Medicaid is a flawed program, irrespective of whether the program is expanded, legislators need to proactively implement reforms that will give the state flexibility to address the healthcare needs of those qualified to receive Medicaid.

The Institute also will focus on transportation funding. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is experiencing a funding crunch, and there is debate about the best way to address this problem. Recent efforts to increase MoDOT funding have focused on raising sales taxes, which is a poorly targeted solution.The best fix to this problem is user fees, in the form of tolling or increased gas taxes. User fees harness market forces to solve the problem— The people who use the roads should pay for them.

Another important issue is the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC). Missouri halted its match of the federal program a few years ago, but there are persistent efforts to restart the program. Research consistently demonstrates that the LIHTC does not increase the supply of low-income housing despite being prohibitively expensive. Even though the program stopped issuing credits more than two years ago, based on redemptions LIHTC remains Missouri’s single largest tax credit. When the issue resurfaces in this legislative session, the Institute will be the leading voice in opposing the revival of the LIHTC.

As mentioned above, these are just a few of the Institute’s priorities for the 2020 legislative session. But they stand out as issues where misguided plans and ideas have powerful advocates. The Institute stands ready to counter those plans and ideas with better solutions based on sound research and free-market principles.