Author: taxpayer

Trip Report: St. Louis MetroLink

On my way home from Kansas City I stopped overnight in St. Louis, mainly because MetroLink has built two extensions since I was last there. Stayed at the Drury Hotel near Union Station, very nice conversion of the old railroad YMCA. All hotels in downtown St. Louis seem expensive, but at least this one is a very comfortable place with helpful staff, a fine breakfast, and good usable Internet computer in the lobby.

Metrolink is really nice as a railfan experience and as a transit service. On my trips trains were always fast, always pretty much on time, rode well, never excessively crowded. One shortcoming is the noise level, which isn’t much less than Chicago’s ‘L’. The high level of “security,” mainly Securitas contract guards, made me very uncomfortable. Securitas staff even handled the one fare-check that I experienced, so I suppose they are able to issue fines or summonses. There were also some uniformed Metro “public safety” staff.

Everybody was very friendly, except one Securitas guy who decided that I could not take a picture of a Union Pacific train while standing on a MetroLink platform.

It is curious that MetroLink has a long extension into Illinois, all the way to Scott Air Force Base. Much of this distance is thru rural areas, there’s apparently not much ridership, presumably there’s a political story to why it was built. But going there is great as a railfan experience, 55 mph thru woods and over creeks, few stations to interrupt the pace.

Took a walk thru downtown St. Louis. There doesn’t seem to be much commerce there anymore, just a lot of old buildings being converted to residential, and some government offices. MetroLink does go to Clayton, a major suburban office center, where there is a public washroom at the bus terminal. To a Chicagoan, this is an impressive amenity.

Trip Report: Megabus

Took Megabus to Kansas City last week (July 8). Buses now load at the curb on Canal just south of Union Station, an open sidewalk with no weather protection. Megabus does have an agent who checks tickets in advance so buses can load relatively fast. We took off about 15 minutes late, bus about 70% full, everything fine. Just before St. Louis, the A/C failed. Driver dropped us off at Union Station and drove away, assuring us that the bus would return with a relief driver. About 30 minutes later that actually happened. On to Kansas City, we paused at a truck stop to try to fix the AC but the only result was to put us an hour behind schedule. On arrival in KC, there was a crowd waiting to board for an immediate departure back to St. Louis.

Returning July 13, we had one of the new Van Hool double deckers. Pretty nice bus in many respects, but the seats are a bit cramped. Also, there are no overhead luggage racks on either level, just the baggage compartment behind the passenger area. And it seemed we had a bit of trouble maintaining speed up hills. But at least the AC worked fine. The bus was perhaps 60% full. I got off at St. Louis, where quite a crowd was waiting to board for Chicago.

I could have taken Amtrak for almost the same fare, but chose Megabus because Amtrak’s StL-KC trains have such a poor on-time record. As it happens, a colleague who took Amtrak said they were only a little late.

Land rent is for fighting over

One problem with private collection of land rent is that people spend their energy fighting over it rather than doing anything productive.  Today’s Tribune carries an example.  In the 1950s, some 400 Chicagoans started an agricultural community near downstate Ullin, 350 miles away.  It prospered for a while, but after the founder’s death in 1978, a schism developed.

The struggle and the lawsuits that followed, members now concede, wasn’t so much about the group’s name, but power, control and money. And there was lots of money.

Over the years, as the Israelite Bible Class had farmed less and less, the group had leased land to local, non-member farmers, a business that generated thousands of dollars of annual revenue.

Also, the farm itself, on the banks of the scenic Cache River, had considerably increased in value since the group purchased it in the mid-1950s, after forming a not-for-profit corporation in 1953.

Today the central court case over ownership, which has been appealed repeatedly, remains active, although after more than 30 years of litigation no one seems too inclined to push it any further.

The issue of rent and land value could not have arisen if the rent were not privatized.

Lava Lamps patent-free too?

A sidebar in today’s Chicago Tribune certainly implies that, like Coca-Cola, lava lamps are manufactured without patent protection, but as a trade secret.  Invented in 1963, the lava lamp’s patent would long since have expired (tho lawyers seem to know ways to effectively extend such things).

btw, the manufacturer says it isn’t officially called a “lava lamp,” but rather a “Lava brand motion lamp.”

Renegade Economists on broadcast and pod

Melbourne radio 3CR’s weekly Renegade Economists show is now available by podcast.  To my knowledge this is the first podcasting, and the only current radio broadcasting, by any Georgists.

Main presenters Karl Fitzgerald and Alice Bleby are associated with Earthsharing Australia, whose numerous activities now include a filmmaking competition.

Taxpayers give a gift to U. S. Sugar, or some of its shareholders.

Associated Press reports that the state of Florida will give U. S. Sugar $1.75 billion to take 187,000 acres out of sugar production and give it to the State for Everglades restoration. An “environmentalist” is ecstatic:

“In the old days, you didn’t just beat your opponent, you also ate them,” he said. “Today, we’re eating U.S. Sugar.”

This works out to about $9,000 per acre, considerably more than the price of good rural midwest farmland. According to the article, it’s become increasingly difficult to make a profit in the sugar industry– leading one to imagine that a similar result might have been achieved had the State spent nothing.

The article states that the 1,700 employees will lose their jobs– but the companies web site says that it is an employee-owned company– with 1700 owners.  Looking at it that way, it’s about a million dollars per displaced worker.  Tho I doubt that each gets an equal share  of what amounts to a gift from the taxpayers. The San Diego Union Tribune says employees own only 30% of the company.  That source also says that the company’s 30,000 acres of orange groves are included in the deal.

And according to the New York Times, insiders have been squeezing the employee-owners out.  So there may be even more sleaze here than at first appears.

Assessor Houlihan raises marginal income tax rates

I’ve commented before on the conclusion, by several analysts, that due to means-tested assistance many people of low an moderate income can face marginal tax rates approaching or even exceeding 100%. That is, if you accept a raise, you might lose some of your food stamps, or medical assistance, or subsidized housing, or federal and/or state earned income tax credits, or other benefits “targeted” for low-income people.

Last week Cook County Assessor James M. Houlihan was kind enough to tell me about another means-tested benefit, that apparently has put some people into a marginal tax bracket of 2,000% or more. And they didn’t even know it, because tho just announced, it’s based on 2006 income.

He calls it the “Long-time Occupant Homeowner Exemption,” and it only applies to “homeowners residing in their homes 10 years or more.”

  • If total household income for 2006 doesn’t exceed $75,000, the increase [in assessed valuation for the homeowner’s residence, apparently] will be limited to 7%.
  • If total household income for 2006 doesn’t exceed $100,000, the increase will be limited to 10%

In both cases there is no maximum exemption amount.

Somewhere there is a longtime homeowner, whose 2006 income was, say, $100,005. That extra $5 might now cost her hundreds (or thousands?) of dollars in real estate taxes.

The impossibility of intelligent tax planning is far from the only reason this is a dumb idea, of course. The savings these longtime homeowners receive will be made up by the rest of us– including the first-time recent buyer struggling to cover an adjusting mortgage.

But I don’t mean to blame Assessor Houlihan exclusively for this nonsense. He says, and I’m sure it’s true, that it is established by the Illinois Legislature. And furthermore, he seens toi be embarrassed enough by it that it’s not on his web site at http://www.cookcountyassessor.com (or at least I couldn’t find it there). There is some mention of it at the City of Berwyn site.

Brach's site update

Back in January I noted a proposal to spend $141,000 of our tax (TIF) money per job “created,” to subsidize redevelopment of the old Brach’s candy factory site. Even more scandalous, the planned distribution center would have contained only 75 jobs on 30 acres within the densely-developed west side of Chicago.

Now comes a report that the City Council Finance Committee has delayed approval of the subsidy. Not because of the wasteful spending or small number of jobs created, but because some local people prefer that a school be built on the site.  I’m not familiar enough with the area’s land use or politics to know whether this is a good site for a school, but at least somebody seems to be paying attention to the fact that land is a limited resource, and perhaps giving land and money away for a small number of jobs is a bad idea.

btw, the more recent report places the parcel size at 12 acres, not 30, which seems small to me but perhaps the area involved is less than the entire site of the former Brach’s facility.

Why Canberra's land leasing failed

Australia’s capital, Canberra, was set up as a leased-land community, so that, as PM Edmund Barton said, “we shall be able to get the land on fair terms, lease it on fair terms and still make a profit for the Commonwealth.”  While economically land leasing can be similar to Henry George’s proposal to collect the land rent, serious mistakes were made.  In particular, lease rates were to be re-evaluated only every 20 years.  Thus, a lease could gain speculative value, and by the time revaluation was due a significant interest was opposed to it.

Details are in an article by Leo Foley, reprinted in the Australian Georgist journal Progress.