Remember that KICK-ASS KANSAS CITY INSIDERS told us about transportation tax routed to the toy train streetcar before anybody else . . . Now it's newsie and political fact . . .
Here's a pretty good post that lays out the deal . . .
Kansas City’s Murky Streetcar Deal Goes Public
Conclusion . . .
"This murky deal is the worst type of policy making. The “swap” essentially makes the streetcar policy and the transportation sales tax more politically palatable to those living in downtown Kansas City by making state taxpayers unwittingly pay for a massive share of the streetcar. This is the type of bargain that is only necessary because the state and Kansas City plan to spend huge sums on wasteful “transportation” projects, and only possible because a sales tax means that who pays has nothing to do with who benefits."
Translation . . .
This is Kansas City politicos attempting to lure people to this town by showing everybody that they're willing to destroy local democracy, bankrupt this town, and then sell out their constituents for a shiny new train that doesn't really serve a practical purpose.
Developing . . .
Here's one for your TKC. Did you know that they have paid consultants to comment on blogs and social media. And KC taxpayers are supporting that? Real shame and something that's getting more obvious.
ReplyDeleteBREAKING!!! PATSY SAYS THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL!!
ReplyDeletedid you know political consultants pay supposedly "free speech" bloggers to espouse their point of view?
ReplyDeleteoh you didn't? well now you do.
So much samefagging in this thread. Fuck the toy train, long live Tony Botello
ReplyDeleteSeems like a really good deal. 60% still goes to roads. 20% for public transit in a state that is 50% urban is more than fair. I mean, why should I pay for rural or suburban road projects of dubious necessarity. Bout time the state started paying for urban transportation infrastructure. Kc and StL have been subsidizing outstate mo for a long long time. And the majority of the money STILL goes to road subsidies.
ReplyDeleteBitching about this is about as fringe as it gets without involving militias. Just shows how ideology and agenda driven the transit and city haters are. Even a lopsided compromise in their favor still gets the propaganda treatment. You're like children who don't know how to share a bite of your big bowl of Mac and cheese with the mother who cooked it for you.
Vote on the train
DeleteSorry vote no for train
DeleteVote on the train
DeleteThe "funding" of the streetcar project has become so complicated, probably by design, that even the boosters have no real idea of the costs or where the money is supposed to come from.
ReplyDeleteMillions have already been squandered from about every line item in the budget, ten million has been borrowed and is paid back interest-only from PIAC funds that are specifically designated for neighborhood infrastructure repair and maintenance, deals have been cut where some property owners within the new TDD will be getting off free, palms are being greased and contracts let to "educate" residents on the east side, proposals are floated for free bus passes for employees who work at city-subsidized businesses, and the great big empty hole is supposed to be filled by the feds.
This has to be the most amateurish and irrespnsible fiasco in the history of the KC metro area.
At least only KCMO taxpayers will be picking up the tab as a reward for electing the kinds of people that they do over and over again.
And the 84% of the metro residents who DON'T live in KCMO are more glad than ever that they don't.
Remember Russ has told us on numerous occasions streetcar is not about transportation, but rather an economical development tool. How can State justify wasting transportation tax money on it?
ReplyDeleteYou and facts? Now that's funny
ReplyDeleteDon't think the State will get much support from those area residents that live north of the river and have to sit thru the Broadway bridge mess twice a day to get to/from their jobs in JoCo. That money should be spent fixing problems like that instead of being wasted on a trolley.
ReplyDeleteSuburban entitlement culture knows no bounds.
ReplyDeleteThe northland is literally a welfare state of unsustainable service demands.
Petulant as spoiled children and twice as pitiful. The joco of missouri.
Without the population growth north of the river, KCMO would be under 300,000 and be getting less and less of the federal money for the area. Be thankful you've got those people and the fact that they push taxes, maintain their property, and don't have the crime that the east side has. Ask Detroit or St Louis how it works when you have no population growth and you shrivel in purple
DeleteThe real story with the MODOT sales tax is that it caved to trucking special interests and prohibited tolls and sales taxes. That makes the streetcar look like a drop in the pond. Granted it requires a more sophisticated understanding of our state legislature.
ReplyDelete8:33 - Why embellish? You have some legitimate concerns that are lost in lies.
ReplyDeleteWell the bitch is back. Sly's bitch that is. They try to make everyone think those opposed to this train wreck are bunch of right wing crack pots. Is Governor Jay Nixon a right wing crack pot? He is opposed to this bullshit regressive sales tax and he called it straight.
ReplyDeleteI'm supporting Crispin because he's sensible enough to see a future for KC in his enthusiasm for the streetcar. We need to make this into a convention and tourist friendly city, and Crispin is wise beyond his years to follow the mayor's lead and embrace growth and development. Tony, all though we disagree on the street car, at least we can agree that Crispin is a great choice for KC's future.
ReplyDeleteI give TKC shit for free. I save the taxpayers. But on this crap streetcar deal, he's right. The thing is a stinker and nothing a consultant can say will change it.
ReplyDeleteIt ain't about streetcars, it's about payoffs.
VOTE NO!
ReplyDeleteCrisping is a good guy but he's inexperienced and doesn't get his to get things like toy trains paid for without overburdening the poor and what's left of a middle-class. None of them do. They believe their current job used as a steppingstone to the next one comes with a blank check that other people have to make good eventually.
ReplyDeleteCrispin IS a good guy, and he is a long term thinker even though he's young. There's a reason Herb Cohn supported him from the beginning. Both of them care about KC development and the future of the city instead of a short term view. The streetcar will pay dividends when we get the next Dem or GOP convention, or maybe the World Cup someday. Thanks for thinking big Crispin.
ReplyDelete"The northland is literally a welfare state of unsustainable service demands."
ReplyDeleteSo true, Northlandnebraskamensabot, but the Northland is what gave us you and what you're supposed to be representing.
"The streetcar will pay dividends when we get the next Dem or GOP convention, or maybe the World Cup someday."
ReplyDeleteWorld Cup? What fucking drugs were you on?
If you keep electing people who want to "think big" with other people's money and not pay any attention at all to how well the city government actually provides such basics as public safety, streets and sidewalks, water and sewers, storm water control, and all the rest, you will be forcing yourself and your neighbors to live in a Thrid World country that thinks it's a tourist destination.
ReplyDeleteBut the rest of the world knows, as LBJ once said, the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit.
So if all of this passes does the currently being collected downtown streetcar tax drop from 1% to 1/4%?
ReplyDeleteAre we talking about MODOT money going to the existing TDD and streetcar or the proposed expansion one? This is very unclear.
It stays at 1% and the downtown TDD becomes absorbed by the larger TDD. Same rate across the TDD. Max of 1% no matter what passes.
ReplyDelete