Voters in Columbia, Mo., are currently voting on a proposal for a downtown Community Improvement District (CID). I say “currently” because this is one of those mail-in ballots to a small number of residents of a mostly commercial area, and the deadline is tomorrow (Nov. 8). Here is a Columbia Missourian article on the issue, which Eapen Thampy, who is leading the fight against the CID, sent to me.
I think this proposal is poor public policy. It disproportionately benefits a very small number of people while taxing a huge number of people who visit downtown Columbia, in order to finance public spending for things that hardly pass the public goods test (event promotion, business marketing, free Wi-Fi). For more on why I think CIDs in general are a bad idea, please check out this testimony I gave in Nixa, Mo., earlier this year.
