Funkhouser's silence during sweetheart Zona Rosa deal speaks volumes

For those of you who keep track of campaign promises . . . The first one has already been broken as Mayor-elect Funkhouser lets one more TIF taxpayer subsidized deal go through without a peep . . . Even The Star points out that Funkhouser was NOTICEABLY silent when it came to a huge TIF deal in order to build a new street in the blighted opulent Zona Rosa area north of the river . . .

The City Council's rushed approval last week of a multimillion-dollar subsidy for Zona Rosa was appalling.

The council gave an overly generous public handout to a successful private developer so it could build a street to help expand the posh shopping district in a prime Northland location.

Mayor Kay Barnes refused to use her considerable power to at least temporarily delay the project.

Besides ignoring the logic of the citizens group she helped appoint, the mayor also ignored the will of Kansas City voters. Just weeks earlier they had elected Mark Funkhouser to succeed her in large part because he promised to more closely scrutinize tax-break requests.

Speaking of Funkhouser, although he doesn't take office until May 1, he knew about this project and should have spoken out and brought more attention to it. That would have been in keeping with his previous opposition to how special deals are slipped through City Hall.

I guess the guy is a quick study when it comes to politics, he knows that he better not do a thing to upset the Northland even if it means betraying all of those cheap campaign promises about TIF abuse and other lies that naive liberals begged Kansas City voters believe.

But I know you still don't believe me, so go and wait by all of those potholes that you think are going to get fixed and then try and remember back when Mayor Kay promised she would fix those things was well back in the days when she had more support than Funkhouser could ever imagine.

And even as The Pitch is belatedly running propaganda about "the end of political hitmen" in Kansas City; Funkhouser's silence makes it evident that he's willing to betray one of his key campaign platforms rather than risk upsetting The Great White North that was almost solely responsible for voting him into office.

It's just a sign of things to come . . . The Mayor-elect and his coven of supporters would rather talk bistate pipe dreams and plan the inauguration ceremony than take part in any real discussion of the very same issues he tricked this town into believing that he would take seriously.