The Best News Out of Jeff City in Some Time

Economy |
By David Stokes | Read Time 2 minutes

It does not get much more exciting than this in government (and I honestly speak here with no hyperbole or sarcasm). The governor’s office has announced plans to eliminate numerous boards and commissions. This is great, for a number of reasons. It will save the state some money, but, more importantly, it will reduce the number of people who have some say — no matter how small — in regulating our lives. Gov. Jay Nixon and the legislative sponsors of this proposal, Sen. Delbert Scott and Reps. Steve Hobbs and J.C. Kuessner, deserve a great deal of credit for doing this. In a small but important way, the freedom of Missourians will take a step forward with this act.

Eliminating the Interior Design Council would mean five fewer people with the potential to direct how we can live and who can be an interior designer, and modifying the Head Injury Advisory Council would reduce by 10 the number of people who have some type of authority to demand that we wear helmets from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed. I admit, it may be a small step — but it is a worthy one.

I am so excited about these proposals that, after my son goes to bed tonight (my wife and other son are out of town visiting relatives), I am going to stay in the hot tub for longer than the recommended time period — and I no longer have to give a damn what the state’s Medical and Technical Advisory Committee has to say about it!

About the Author

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

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