Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) are special taxing districts that are funded by a sales or property tax (almost always a sales tax) to subsidize certain public improvements within a defined area. Show-Me Institute researchers have identified many problems with CIDs over the years, but one big issue is that Missouri won’t release certain tax information about some smaller CIDs, even though they are government agencies and all of their money is public money!
The state’s department of revenue previously determined that for the smallest CIDs—CIDs that only have a few parcels and property owners—releasing tax information is the same as releasing an individual’s personal tax information. So, as you can see in this report on CIDs from the state auditor, certain CIDs have their information redacted, as if secret details from the Gulf of Tonkin are buried in Missouri CID reports or something.
Senate Bill 1066 has been introduced to address this issue and clarify that all CID revenues, which, if I didn’t make this clear enough the first time, are all public tax dollars, can be collected and shared by various state agencies. This is a good bill for government transparency, something that has long been important to the Show-Me Institute.
