TKC BREAKING AND EXCLUSIVE NEWS!!! MAYOR SLY'S TAX AND BORROW PLAN WON'T PREVENT SCHEDULED INCREASES IN KANSAS CITY WATER/SEWER RATES!!!
There's an interesting bit of word play going on at City Hall and it's important to call out esteemed and honorable Mayor and City Council out on it . . .
ALREADY MAYOR SLY AND THE CITY COUNCIL ARE THREATENING: PASSING THE TAX AND BORROW PLAN WILL KEEP WATER AND SEWER RATES FROM RISING . . . (MORE THAN THEY WERE ALREADY SCHEDULED TO INCREASE!!!)
See, it's that last part that keeps getting lost in the discussion.
Sorry Kansas City . . .
WATER AND SEWER RATES ARE GOING UP NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS WITH MAYOR SLY'S TAX AND BORROW PLAN!!!
Will they go up a little bit or a lot depending on whether Kansas City voters give into Mayor Sly's charm during a sparsely attended election?
Let's answer that question with a question . . .
DOES MAYOR SLY'S PLAN TO SPEND $500 MILLION ON A WHOLE BUNCH ON INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS AND TIF EVEN COME CLOSE TO DEALING WITH A PROBLEM THAT'S ESTIMATED AT $2.5 BILLION DOLLARS?!?!?
Once and for all . . . And for the cheap seats . . .
SO FAR . . . WHAT WE'VE SEEN OF THE MAYOR'S TAX AND BORROW PLAN IS NOTHING MORE THAN KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD AND JUST BORROWING WITHOUT COMING CLOSE TO SOLVING KANSAS CITY'S 25 YEAR MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR BEEF WITH THE EPA!!!
This Kansas city tax and borrow plan doesn't really solve any local problems and it looks like it's nothing more than another blank check for City Hall under the auspices of infrastructure repair. TKC TIPSTERS are telling us more about the slapdash way in which Mayor Sly put this together and it's doesn't really seem like plan at all but nothing more than a rush to siphon more funds from taxpayers before election time.
DEVELOPING . . .
We want the train!
ReplyDeleteThat election won't get 10,000 votes TKC. Sorry but you are wasting your breath.
ReplyDeleteAs more money pours out the door with "fun" projects like the All Star Game and the streetcar, the search for funding serious necessities like water and sewers will become even more desperate. Especially when the Feds say that they've waited long enough and penalties start to be levied. By the way, how's the ADA project that's been ignored for decades coming?
ReplyDeleteAnd you can e sure that the money from any tax increases that the public approves will have to go through the same eager hands of the same old city hall insiders who manipulate so much of it already.
JoCo and the other suburbs look better all the time.
We got your water, put your money down. NO that's not enough! We can sell your women and take that.
ReplyDeleteI bet Troy Schulte is sorry he took that job. Dust off the resume Troy. You are destined for better things than going down with the Titanic.
ReplyDeleteHere's the proof in the pudding. How many current council members ever had a job/successful career prior to council? My estimate is 3 of 12 made more money in the private sector.
That's like making the Jiffy Lube guy CEO of Ford Motor Company. In way over their heads and quickly start to think they know all the answers.
Hmmm interesting article and responses. I wonder...since all of you idiots have the answers, why don't you run for Mayor or council and help the rest of us dummies figure things out?
ReplyDelete"Hmmm interesting article and responses. I wonder...since all of you idiots have the answers, why don't you run for Mayor or council and help the rest of us dummies figure things out?"
ReplyDeleteOh the infamous Strawman argument... you're a sharp one.
This is all Kyle's fault.
ReplyDelete8:57- The first step to recovery is recognizing you have a problem. Thank you for admitting that you, the Mayor and the Council don't know what the fuck you're doing. And keep in mind there's a helluva difference between being electable and knowing what you're doing once you get there.
ReplyDeleteAs to figuring it out, the way to start is by rebuilding the public's trust. And that means neighborhood and basic services- not pie-in-the-sky grand development schemes.
The 3-1-1 Action Center and the "services" that are delivered as a result are both atrocious. That's because the present evaluation measures are QUANTITATIVE (i.e. Requests initiated vs. Requests closed). City employees are pushed to close cases, not drive outcomes. There are absolutely ZERO QUALITATIVE measures of service delivery or performance, and because of it, City employees ROUTINELY fail to do their jobs satisfactorily. They just close cases.
REQUIRE Schulte to develop qualitative measures for City services (not the shit-ass polling done now but an evaluation of EACH AND EVERY service request.) Then turn over the evaluation of service delivery to citizens. And hold Schulte accountable for the performance of his employees who are individually responsible or who are at Division/Departmental levels.
Do that for a year or two, show you care about the quality of life for the residents of this town (and not just the big money deep pockets crowd) and you'll be able to pass whatever kind of tax increase you want on the strength of that performance- as opposed to the strength of the performance by Gray and Glorioso.
It's not hard. It's just the Mayor and the Council are so out of touch and insulated from people who tell them the truth. They come in beholden to those who got them elected and with absolutely zero understanding of how City Hall works (or doesn't). So they surround themselves with people who tell them what they want to hear or who push their own pet agendas and projects.
But for most residents, this city does nothing but ask for more. And they've had enough.
It's about basic services, stupid.
Typically uninformed opinion. Most city services are either provided or they aren't. You either replace the stop sign or don't, pick up the dead animal or you don't, mow the grass or not. Qualitative measures are useless and are usually proffered as alternatives to real measures that measure accountability and results. Once heard an IT manager argue that her outcomes were overall economic development. Pure BS. Her job was to keep the systems running so that others could do the work that mattered.
DeleteThat sounds real nice but Sly is going towin thos election in a walk. Your silly opinion isn't necessary.
ReplyDeleteCleaver is on KCUR's Up-To-Date right now 11 to 12 with Steve Kraske.
ReplyDeleteListen to the hypocrisy!!!
9:28 is right.
ReplyDeleteCredibility, accountability, performance standards, and actual results.
Everything else is window dressing and fluff.
And if you think the public is disgusted with all this now, just wait for the "campaign" that will be put together by Pat Gray, Glorioso, and the rest of the hangers-on at city hall!
Be afraid; be VERY afraid!
Vote No on all tax increases, renewals and bonds
ReplyDeleteIts actually LESS of a increase in bills if you vote for the bonds. No matter what, rates are going up. Try being a little informed instead of such a wet smear on life. Start by reading the article in the story. That will help.
DeleteThis Mayor will not recover from the fiasco of failed leadership in this town. It's sad because there was a lot of hope that he could provide some resolution to the most pressing concerns of the City. Instead, he's involved in messy power grabs, messy land grabs and messy money grabs and bullying the citizens into submission; which resembles the legacy of past leadership. Way to distinguish yourself from the cannibalistic pack, Sly! (Continuing the tradition of feeding off of the young and providing nothing in return) Meanwhile, innocent people continue to die on the streets of Kansas City, MO with no end in sight.
ReplyDeleteHey, 10:09 if this election were such a lay-up Sly wouldn't need to be bringing in hired guns, now would he?
ReplyDeleteThe reason the "choice" is between a 17% increase if you vote for the bonds, and a 25%/year increase if you don't is because the city has neglected the water services department and its operation for decades, just like code enforcement, the housing department, and about every other basic service you can name.
ReplyDeleteAnd now the bills are coming due just as the economy is sagging, the east side is collapsing in a hail of gunfire, and all the TIFs and other corporate giveaways have hollowed out the tax base.
And KCMO continues to be run as an ad hocracy with no strategy or priorities.
Behavior has consequences.
3:26- What article in the story are you referring to?
ReplyDeleteSOS is right on... and the saga continues except this time the money pit is in the red.
ReplyDelete@6:40- Typically bureaucratic opinion. You a government employee?
ReplyDeleteThe stop sign may have been replaced, but maybe the crew left a pile of dirt all over the sidewalk or damaged private property in the process.
The grass may have been mowed, but so were the flower beds and there are also grass clippings all over the sidewalk.
And dead animals? Maybe the carcass was picked up but the busted guts were left all over the road.
Or they picked up my trash but threw the bag at the truck, missed, tore the bag open and left trash all over my yard.
Saying you don't care how well a job was done, only whether it was done, is like saying it doesn't matter if it was a turd or a t-bone so long as you ate.
And this City is serving up plenty of turds these days. Bon appetite!