Show Me Institute

UPDATE: Dave Roland, an analyst at Sinquefield's Show-Me Insitutute, has responded to this post in the comments.

I see that David Stokes at Rex Sinquefield's Show-Me Institute blog is criticizing Oregonians' use of a ballot initiative to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy.  It passed by a wide margin,  but Stokes isn't digging the voters' decision-- the Oregon vote, he says, is an example of "why I prefer a representative republic to direct democracy."

Stokes disdain for ballot initiatives is ironic (to say the least) considering Sinquefield's sponsorship of at least five initiatives to end the 1% earnings tax in St. Louis and Kansas City. Sinquefield has even put $500,000 of his personal fortune into a brand new campaign account called "Let Voters Decide."

The Show Me Institute has a new study concluding that Missouri "ranks Missouri high on a list of states with big government," and Missourinet has dutifly reprinted their main findings in a piece titled "Show me big government." To back up their claim of "big government" the Institute mainly points to the fact that Missouri has a lot of counties and school districts, and a big House of Representatives, which contribute to a high number of "government units."

Wouldn't high tax burdens be a better measure of big government?  That seems to be the underlying concern -- that bloated, inefficient government costs us money.

The Tax Foundation -- hardly a left-wing outfit -- ranks Missouri 47th in state tax collections per capita.  And 46th in state spending per capita. When one adds in local governments, the tax burden on Missourians ranks 32nd.  Some of this data is actually included in the Show Me Institute study -- which actually describes Missouri as a "comparatively low-tax state."