The current economic climate in Kansas City is harsh. This is a horrible moment to extend yet another local tax.
To wit . . . There's been a lot of talk about COMBAT Tax Renewal as of late . . . And while my baby's mama Nadia is content to simply transcribe info that can easily be found on the Jackson County's website . . .
I'd rather (EXCLUSIVELY) report some grass roots fighting against COMBAT!!! And I also needed to rework the COMBAT logo in order get it out of my head given that the sign litters all of local public streets around where I live.
Furthermore, a killer article at the Missouri Record today makes the case against COMBAT TAX Renewal in a no-holds-barred analysis of the hot mess.
So . . . While KC Preachers on the payroll are proud to use their pulpit to push the status quo . . . It's nice to see at least some kind of challenge emerge in the COMBAT TAX RENEWAL Discussion so that Mike Sanders will stop using the fact that he's not has horrible as Mayor Funky to sell a never ending, self perpetuating tax to a County that's already throwing money away on the Chiefs.
nice sign.
ReplyDelete"While KC Preachers on the payroll our proud to..."
ReplyDelete"our" proud? really?
quit staying up all night on the web, dude - it's REALLY starting to show.
werd. I like the sign though.
ReplyDeleteTony I don't think you understand that your own community will be fucked if COMBAT doesn't pass. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Do you even care about your hood?
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the world is going to end if Kansas City doesn't pass this tax. Isn't that the same argument we always get?
ReplyDeleteBut the world WILL end if Henry Rizzo doesn't have COMBAT to provide employment for his friends and relatives.
ReplyDeleteHenry's wife works for another county legislator and is one of the highest paid employees of the county and his girlfriend works for the prosecutors office and is assigned to the MyArts program. If we only had a newspaper in this town. (No, I do not expect anything from the TV news dolls.)
ReplyDeleteHere's where you can see why the MO Records writer is really against COMBAT: simple racism.
ReplyDelete"COMBAT funds go to a number of agencies and provide a number of services to citizens. In fact, it is alleged that funding even goes to organizations that provide services to illegal aliens through prevention and treatment programs such as the Guadalupe Centers and Mattie Rhodes Center."
COMBAT should be dismantled. There are NO neighborhood components. Bored kids in Grain Valley will continue to be overlooked. Buckner hasn't a ghost of a chance to garner real dollars needed to combat underage drinking and illegal drugs in that tiny community. Kansas City continues to suck up all of the resources, then complain that they are still hungry. This tax is not working.
ReplyDelete1:46. Tony wrote the same thing. It's not racist to note a fact.
ReplyDeleteOther cities may not have a dedicated drug tax but we also don't know how much other regular tax money they commit to such programs. We also don't know how much TIF they have, which around here, takes money out of the local gov coffers that could be going to fight crime and treat drug addicts. You also have to consider the multi-jurisdictional nature of COMBAT. So a better comparison would be to take an area of similar size and see how much of their overall tax base goes to programs like this and what they lable the pots they are paying it out of.
ReplyDeletethrowing drug users in jail, the long time 'war on drugs' has been completely ineffective. its just another way of keeping the cop and prison industries flowing in money.
ReplyDeleteWant to combat drugs? Wipe out the poppy fields in Afganistan and take out the Mexican drug kingpins.
Fight the foreign enemy, not the US customers. Or just legalize marijuana and watch Mexico go quickly bankrupt.
Times are tight. Fix the roads and sewers and waterpipes. We don't need more paperpushers whose jobs it is to make people who have problems have even MORE problems.
Law enforcement isn't it. Drug rehab is it.
Vote No on this TAX.
ReplyDelete$20,000,000.00 could be used for a lot of other things.
Watch KCPT tonight and you will see the difference between the sane people that are asking questions about the current COMBAT TAX and the paid for pencil pushers who want their money given to them without any strings so they by pass the usual avenues for collecting Drug Enforcement Taxes.
Let's see the 990's for these non profit guys who get the COMBAT money. What do they really spend their money on. The 990's will show the incredible salaries of some of the guys who are putting campaign donations in to the COMBAT werks fund.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we have to always VOTE before the audits are shown to the public?
"Times are tight. Fix the roads and sewers and waterpipes. "
ReplyDeleteBut even if COMBAT fails it is not like that tax money will suddenly go toward these things. First it is a county tax and if the cities (which fix the sewers etc in most areas) were to need the money they would have to pass a new tax or expand an old one to recapture the COMBAT money.
"Law enforcement isn't it. Drug rehab is it."
Well COMBAT is a mix of those things and, again, if it fails who is going to cough uo the treatment dollars it does provide. Maybe COMBAT could be more treatment and less enforcement but that is a discussion of how to use it not whether it should exist at all.