My recent trip to Kansas City involved a conference at a hotel which doesn’t have regular bus service, but can be reached by KCATA’s Metroflex. It’s a route-deviation service; you call 24 hours ahead and they drop you off at any point within the area served by the particular route. Unfortunately the Megabus terminal at 3rd and Grand is a distance from the 10th & Main Metroflex hub, but two or three KCATA routes make the connection even until fairly late at night.

Going to the conference hotel worked pretty well and I was dropped off right at the hotel entrance. Returning, the bus didn’t show on time, I called and was told that there was no record of my request but fortunately the bus was nearby and would be diverted. True enough, except that it drove around the hotel and didn’t come to the entrance. I ran after it, with luggage, managed to flag it down. Turns out that the small buses go to the hotel, but the big buses have to stay on the public street. I suppose locals learn to deal with this, just as Chicagoans learn that some of the announcements on the ‘L’ are incorrect because the operator pushed the wrong button, or the right button the wrong number of times, or was required to push the button even if it makes no sense.

Connecting back from Metroflex to Megabus, I got a brief ride on their version of BRT, known as MAX. Actually I had some trouble finding the Max stop, but downtown KC has lots of friendly homeless people and one of them showed me the way. The Max bus itself is something I’ve never seen, with low-floor bowling-alley seating on the right side and forward-facing seats on a raised platform on the left side of the bus.

KCATA doesn’t publish a system map, nor do they display one on their web site, but they were happy to mail me a more or less complete set of hardcopy schedules. Each schedule contains a map for that route, so it was possible to piece together how to get where I needed to go.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

A new paper(pdf) by Andrew Heidel proposes using TIF money to fund development of new stations along existing CTA rail lines. He identifies a number of potential sites, implements a simple method of ranking them based mainly on past TIF growth and ridership potential.

It’s good that the potential of TIF’s as a transit funding tool is recognized, but the paper presents problems both for Georgists and for transit rider advocates.

For Georgists the big concern is that, though Heidel does cite work by Bill Batt, and Jeff Smith/Tom Gihring(pdf), he doesn’t seem to recognize the difference between land and improvements. A related concern is that his evaluation assumes that past trends in each TIF’s value predict the future trend, which is to say that the possible new transit station will have no effect on value.

For transit rider advocates, it is bothersome that he rejects restoration of closed stations on the Congress line because, after all, they were closed due to low ridership.  That seems to assume that little new development will take place.  As a result, most of the stations he considers are at sites where service was discontinued in the 1950s, rather than the 1970s. No rationale is provided for this decision.

It is also striking that he was informed, apparently by CTA, that the cost to build a station on an existing line is $165,000, and the maintenance cost is $50,000/year.  In fact, can anyone report a cta station built or rebuilt for less than $5 million in recent years?

Still, at least someone is paying attention to the fact that the value created by transit facilities can be recovered for the community thru the real estate tax.

Heidel presented his paper at the 2008 Transport Chicago Conference.  Most of the papers presented there are here.

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.