New leadership deserves support

By NewsPress Now

St. Joseph enters the new year with new leadership ready to take the helm in local government and public education.

Mike Schumacher was hired as city manager and is expected to begin his duties around Jan. 21. Ashly McGinnis was named superintendent of the St. Joseph School District and takes over for Gabe Edgar, who is retiring, in July.

Both of these individuals bring strong credentials. Schumacher served as assistant city manager in Kansas City and city administrator in Lebanon, Missouri. McGinnis is a known quantity as the SJSD’s assistant superintendent of academic services and a former principal at Lafayette High School.

Both will face considerable challenges in addition to managing large budgets and organizations. The city has the usual problems of crime, infrastructure and neighborhood revitalization in addition to talk of a general obligation bond issue to build a sports complex.

We’re not saying things were easy for the last city manager, but having to spend $39 million in American Rescue Plan Act Funding was a nice problem to have. Schumacher won’t have that problem.

The school district has made progress on graduation rates, but attendance and test scores still need improvement. A $150 million bond election for a new high school looks set to occur in April on Edgar’s watch, but McGinnis will play a key role in both the run-up and the aftermath.

Notice that the early chatter is focused on building a new high school, not closing or consolidating buildings. That’s the tough part for a voting public that has a strong emotional attachment to their old high schools.

Maybe McGinnis, who brings the kind of local experience and connections that Edgar or Doug Van Zyl lacked, is a school administrator who can win trust with voters and get this issue across the finish line.

There will be moments in 2025 when Schumacher and McGinnis will be wondering why they accepted the jobs at all. It’s OK to disagree with them on a particular issue, but St. Joseph residents should be willing to work with these new leaders and support them. If they succeed, then we all succeed.

A penny here a penny there

Proponents of a Community Improvement District (CID) should use caution in referring to the additional 1-cent levy as “a few more pennies” on purchases at the Shoppes at North Village.

Those pennies add up, especially for those of modest means who endured higher prices for food, utilities, fuel and just about everything else when inflation hit a 40-year high. St. Joseph’s combined overall sales tax rate of 9.7% (city, county and state) is higher than parts of Springfield, Columbia and St. Louis.

St. Joseph can no longer call itself a low-tax city, at least in regard to the general sales tax rate. With the CID, the sales tax at some North Shoppes stores will exceed 10%. But the City Council had no choice but to approve a confusing measure that creates different tax rates at different stores.

That’s because failure to approve the tax (that’s what it is, not a “district”) means the shopping center would fall into disrepair, driving away customers and eventually retail tenants. Or the owner could raise rents to pay for repairs, but that ultimately leaves a mall-like facility that’s well-maintained but devoid of retailers.

The CID is the best way to keep tenants and maintain a shopping center that attracts and retains retail business. You can pay now or pay later.