Kansas had recently enacted major tax changes and was openly presenting itself as an attractive alternative for businesses located in Missouri. That intensified the Kansas City area's long-running interstate competition for employers and raised an important question for Missouri: should it answer with more company-specific incentives, or with reforms that improve the state's tax climate for everyone?

The stronger response would be broad-based reform. Selective subsidies can move firms across a state line without producing much new regional activity, and they force ordinary taxpayers and businesses to carry burdens that favored firms can avoid. General reductions in marginal tax rates and other structural improvements change the incentives facing all entrepreneurs and investors.

Kansas's strategy therefore put pressure on Missouri to think beyond the border war and address the underlying competitiveness of its tax system.