There are a lot of taxes that the Show-Me Institute doesn’t like, but two of its authors have zeroed in on an obscure one that they find especially egregious: the pool-table tax imposed by some Missouri counties.

Nicholas Loyal and David Stokes make a classic libertarian case against the tax:

There are no taxes specifically targeted at basketball courts or dartboards, but in Saint Louis, Jackson, and nine other Missouri counties, ordinances still exist that require an annual payment in order to operate a pool table for public use.

There’s also an efficiency argument, Loyal and Stokes point out:

These taxes, usually nominal, cannot provide much of a revenue stream for counties. They can, however, adversely affect the choices of establishments that are already forced to pay commercial property taxes in addition to filling local coffers with payments for liquor and business licenses.

These ordinances seem to be relics of a more prudish era, and presumably could be abolished without raising much of a ruckus. What I really like about the Show-Me piece, meanwhile, is its headline:

Taxes — With a Capital T, and That Rhymes with P, and That Stands for Pool