Given that City Hall is dominated by a development-focused agenda that has made corporate welfare Kansas City's biggest priority . . . Don't blame these activists for trying to secure more East Side cash. Still, after $100 MILLION HAS BEEN WASTED on 18th and Vine . . . It's clear that city led development has been a bust for more than a generation and these leader would be better off searching private funds.
You decide . . . Petitioners seek KC sales tax increase to support East Side development
You decide . . . Petitioners seek KC sales tax increase to support East Side development
Activists or grifters? Me thinks grifter is a better adjective for these two. The money won't be for the eastside, its for their personal church funds. The people who attend their churches don't live in Kansas City. This is the old "Miles" hat trick. It worked so well for him.
ReplyDeleteStop with the taxes already. You shit heels have already seen where the money will go - same bullshit pet projects where it always goes. Wise the suck up and put a stop to it.
ReplyDeleteGawd! This is going to be a long four years. I just want to board my house and rent an apartment until this political climate blows over.
ReplyDeleteShame on these folks. Sales tax is very regressive. They need to be working on getting funds that are already collected and wasted by KC Streetcar & Port KC shifted to their area for development.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the writer, "A five-member board, appointed by the mayor and City Council, would help recommend how the tax proceeds would be spent."
ReplyDeleteHave we not learned anything from history? Government planners doling out taxpayer's treasure does not lead to prosperity. Ever. If you want to encourage pioneering business development in the urban core, you need to put real incentives in place so that prospective entrepreneurs choose to locate within the urban core.
Rather than fleecing taxpayers for thirty years +, let's do something meaningful and proactive. Let's put a thirty year plan in place that reduces sales taxes to 0% and waives business and occupational licensing for this proposed geographic area.
If this group's aim is business development, then they should have the courage to try things that are proven to work rather than old, tired strategies designed to transfer wealth and keep politicians well capitalized.
It's obvious, they're proposing their tax vote on the April ballot SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE the City's bond issue will be on the same ballot. They don't actually think theirs will win in a city-wide vote, they want to scare the City into coughing up some cash now in order to avoid competing tax increases on the April ballot, which the City knows will make theirs that much tougher to win. In typical KC fashion, look for the council to make a back-room deal, throw some cash at these grifters right now, and the petition will mysteriously be forgotten... also in KC fashion, Katy "the Hut" Shields, AKA Katy "the Con" Shields, will find a way to ensure her development masters get a nice piece of that cash.
ReplyDeleteSales tax? What are you gonna tax? Drug transactions? Illegal gun sales? Well, you probably have a better chance of serving time for those scofflaw violations than you do for drive byes.
ReplyDeleteSales tax in KC is near the highest in the nation. Hows that shit working for ya tax payers?
ReplyDeleteFollow the money.......East side developers don't live in Kansas City. (Just the shell corporation) Same old KC developer playbook.......look closely at the names underneath and you will find the same old ones with their hands out again for city tax dollars. Developers only benefit themselves. struggling east side residents would rather have lower water bills.
ReplyDeleteKCMO already has one of the highest sales tax rates in the US. Here in River Market it is 9.35%. In all of US, only two cities have higher rates; Seattle, Washington & Oakland, California.
ReplyDeleteThese so-called leaders are a disgrace to the east side. A regressive sales tax imposes a greater burden on the poor than on the rich.
ReplyDeleteThese folks are totally misguided. To help the folks the east side, they should be actively campaigning to defeat the numerous sales tax issues on the Nov ballot.
ReplyDeleteYes^^^^^
ReplyDeleteThese poor old guys and the worthless organizations and groups they represent haven't had a new idea since the mid-1960's.
ReplyDeleteJust the same old shakedown routines of governments, corporations, foundations, or in this case, residents to come up with a trough of money which is turned into thin air by the usual suspects in a very predictable way.
Why not work to improve behavior and responsibility and increase the safety of neighborhoods on the east side? That would sure be appreciated by the good folks who live there.
Why not work to reduce the disparate treatment and outcomes of the criminal justice system for minority defendants and demand improvement of the pitiful and incompetent public defenders' office?
That would enormously improve the lots of thousands of families and children.
All WAY too much work and actually takes some imagination, competence, and working with others.
And maybe nothing financial in it for them.
What a sad couple of people.
Due to the streetcar, the sales tax rate in River Market is 9.35%. Only two cities have higher rates; Seattle, Washington & Oakland, California. Businesses are moving out to the area to escape this excessive rate.
ReplyDelete