TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! KANSAS CITY CID CRAZE CONTINUES!!! UPTOWN THEATER AND VALENTINE SHOPS PROPOSE MORE TAX BREAKS DESPITE LEGACY OF FAIL!!!
Despite a decent concert every now and then along with a few political rallies . . . The Uptown Theater and Valentine Shops are basically a good place to get robbed and/or shot.
Remember that not so long ago, a jazz club hoped to bring life back to the area but then shut down less than two years later.
Now, as City Hall hopes to review Community Improvement District Policy and YET ANOTHER taxing district is proposed . . . OUR BLOG COMMUNITY FEATURES A COMPREHENSIVE EXPLANATION of the plan . . .
More to the point . . .
MORE CITY HALL TAX BREAKS FOR THE UPTOWN THEATER AND VALENTINE SHOPS THREATEN TO DOUBLE DOWN ON A LONGSTANDING LEGACY OF HIGH CRIME FAIL!!!
Here's a memo passed around City Council yesterday that sums up the situation perfectly . . . The highlights are mine for easier reading:
Uptown Theatre proposed CID
Dear Council Members,
I am reaching out to you regarding the ongoing fiscal conundrum called Uptown Theatre TIF.
If we take a walk down memory lane we will see that the original TIF was signed in 1996.
At that time it may have seemed like a viable use for a TIF. Sadly, on paper it would be a decent candidate for a TIF today. 18 years later. Let that sink in.
The TIF was reorganized 4 times.
Fun Fact: Did you know that the Chatham Hotel was once part of the TIF? In 18 years of city help this corner of Westport heaven is still a mess.
The issue before you is a new way to get money to the owners of The Uptown. A wholly self contained CID.
Usually, City Council's thinking is to support the ordinances of their colleagues for stuff in their colleagues' districts. Not today.
So here we go:
1 - The issuance for Uptown project was 8.5 million dollars for the actual Theater and Shopping Center. $5 million for the Theater, and 3.5 million dollars for the Shopping Center.
* How much money has the City expended on payments on the $5 million bond issuance.
* In approximately 2009, the City of Kansas City has been paying all bond payments on behalf of the Shopping Center. The total paid to date is close to $3,000,000.00. Was the $3,000,000 that was not paid by the Uptown invested in the Center? Seems unlikely as the center is ratty.
2 - Good government practice would call for an audit of the Shopping Center books before approving a CID that appears to give the Uptown another $100,000 per year with no outside oversight.
Not just the Uptown TIF but any current TIF requesting new monies. My personal query would be the revenues generated from the now defunct Bookstore.
3 - Approximately 18 years later the Shopping Center is still not close to being fully leased. But there is a Vape Shop.
4 - The proposed agreement to authorize and set up a CID shows that of the 5 board members, 4 are related to the Uptown.
That means there is no outside oversight of the expenses and income of the CID. These 4 members will be able to vote any issue they want, the way they want.
* The petition outlines the criteria for being a Board Member. Not all people listed as members are listed as owners of either real property or a business within the District, or live within the District.
* It also mandates that UGA gets to pick the member of the Broadway Westport CID. That leaves 4 of the 5 members as allies of the Uptown Theater. Now that makes me as crazy as when I think about the upcoming elections.
5 - The proposed budget has language that funds thousands of dollars of current business expenses at both the Shopping Center and the Theater such as snow removal and security. Regarding security, does this mean current everyday security or enhanced patrol when there is a large function at the site?
* Agreement states that monies can be spent on “Public Areas” within the District. The only public spaces in the District are sidewalks.
* Agreement has language to help pay for management. Really?
6 - Now here's a good one! The Agreement also states that monies can be used to cover the shortfall of the current bonds. Why would we give money to pay the Uptown’s current obligations owed to the City?
Bad precedent.
Do we want to create a CID that will give, based on the proposal, $100,000 per year to a District that is controlled by one Company?
########
You decide . . .
we need to save that area. it might be a good place to begin a new policy of policing.
ReplyDeleteOnly the streetcar can save us now.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem is that in order to generate money for the TIF or CID, the entity has to generate sales tax. In many of the centers in JoCo, landlords are declining to renew leases tenants like dry cleaners, medical facilities, post offices, and other entities like repair shops and dance studios, and beauty shops that don't generate sales taxes in favor of those who do. It is getting to be a problem for those business owners who do not generate sales tax. There are just not a lot of options for them, and they cannot rely on a landlord for more than about three years because if he/she can get a TIF or CID, then the race will begin to get sales tax revenue. It is an unintended consequence of all the sales tax money generated to improve the property.
ReplyDelete12:31: In other words, we're royally screwed.
ReplyDeleteThe streetcar fiasco demonstrated that the TDD statute could be abused and used to fund something that it was never intended for, and now the CID enabling legislation is falling into the same abuse.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is only the beginning. The menu of "eco devo" uses of public tax money is enormous, creative attorneys are many, and the number of agencies, some of which operate with virtually no oversight or public knowledge, is large.
And the number of members of the KCMO council who really look after the public's interest can easily be counted on one hand.
Standby for lift-off!
Man tis is the town for bad business folk. Come to KC, open a business and when it starts to fail ask the city for money. They receive your tax money, you pay the bill and then admission and parking goes up and you pay again. How fucking stupid does this scheme have to get before the lights come on around here?
ReplyDeleteExcellent comment. More like this.
ReplyDeleteDear Lord!
ReplyDeleteIs there no stopping Kathryn Shields and her voracious appetite for spending my tax dollars?
Is there no way to stop these bullshit ideas that Kathryn Shields thinks will propel her to the Mayor's office?
Jolie Justus is truly worthless.
Dear Scott Taylor can you please help us with this particular CID? It needs real outside oversight. The current rules can't be used without some tweaking. The proposed board is one step to disaster. One step to an exposé .
Is Larry Sells still making himself rich at the public trough?
ReplyDelete