TKC BREAKING NEWS!!! KANSAS CITY TAX FIGHTERS TARGET INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL TAX SUBSIDY BLIGHT DESIGNATION!!!



On Friday night Steve Vockrodt wrote an important story about a disgraceful tax break in progress that was buried by the local newspaper but deserves more attention. We talked about it a bit but now local taxfighters have taken up the cause.

And so . . .

KANSAS CITY LOCALS WATCHING THE NEWS AND TIRED OF INSIDER TAX DEALS RAGE AGAINST THE PREPOSTEROUS BIG MONEY ASK FROM A LUXURY HOTEL!!!

Here's the message from Kansas City Citizens For Responsible Government . . .

City Council... Please say "NO" to the InterContinental Hotel...

Last Friday, the local media outlets reported the InterContinental Hotel was going to ask the City to set up a CID so they could raise sales tax dollars and use the money for updating their facility. The money would be used for furnishings, cosmetic and structural repairs. The City needs to stay out of this. Our City is not a bank and the InterContinental is out of line asking the City to spend taxpayers resources to collect and monitor their funds.

What properly managed hospitality company would not have a mechanism to set aside funds for updates and remodels? What are they not telling us here? What’s coming next? TIF financing? Property tax abatements? If they don’t have funds set aside, shame on their lack of foresight. Go to the bank and get a loan.

Why can’t they just raise the price of everything on the property 1% and use those collections to fund their upgrade. What’s the difference? This approach would leave the City out of it and their customers would foot the bill. This is a private business and our City has no excuse to get involved.

Those on the Council who think setting up another CID won’t cost the City anything are just wrong. Our city will have administrative costs involved in collecting and managing funds for something they have no equity interest in. Let the free enterprise system work, stay out of it! Our City needs to stay out of private businesses affairs and tend to the City’s affairs. There is enough for them to be concentrating on with crime, lack of proper police numbers, roads full of holes, sewers backing up into basements, utility rates going thru the roof, council members using their positions to usurp the law and so on.

Once you establish a CID, they never seen to go away. There is already at least one CID on the Plaza, now they want to stack another CID on top of the one (s) that are already there. Also if the InterContinental raises their sales tax 1% for refurbishments and the streetcar expansion comes along, they will get hit with another 1% on their sales taxes for that TDD plus assessments and increased property taxes. WOW! Their prices will have to go up, up,up!

The InterContinental Hotel should manage their own business and leave our CIty out of it. We need to keep an eye on what’s going on here..

If you agree with our assessment, call and email your councilperson, the at large council members and the mayor . Tell them to let the InterContinental run their own affairs and concentrate of what our City needs… Here is their contact info.
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Developing . . . 

Comments

  1. Why is it that all of the big companies in Kansas City have their hand out? We talk a lot about welfare but look at these big companies and all of the lawyers and they're just as bad.

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  2. say what? this guy doesn't understand how our crony capitalist system now works.

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  3. The big companies and the "development attorneys" who represent them always have their hands out because local governments far more often than not fill those open palms with taxpayer cash.
    Once these folks convinced elected officials, the media, and the public that the role of government is jobs and "economic growth", the only question left is how much subsidy, TIF, tax breaks, public guarantee of debt, and every other concocted scam possible is going to be available.
    It's the local version of using government to make income inequality much much worse and KCMO is the regional top sucker.
    Too bad the KCMO city government doesn't even try to represent the local residents or businesses.
    Have Sly and the gang found any more public money for Mike's new hotel?

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  4. Buried by the newspaper? IT WAS ON THE FUCKING FRONT PAGE ABOVE THE FOLD!!!

    You are high.

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  5. Really, the blight is the negroes that infest the Plaza now. A tax break will not save it.

    Wiping away the blight will.

    How can we accomplish that?

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  6. Why can’t they just raise the price of everything on the property 1% and use those collections to fund their upgrade.

    DANG these people are dangerously stupid.

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  7. This complaining about the council actions is a waste when they were elected just last year. When candidates that opposed many of the issues that CFRG e-mail about did they do anything for those candidates?

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  8. CFRG a group of two: Dan Coffey and John Murphy. Have they ever had meeting?

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  9. Bottom line is this: Intercontinental isn't going anywhere. At their price point, they CAN just bump the room rate a bit as their market is not buying on price. And if for some reason they do bail, there will be a line of people waiting for that location.

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  10. Being in the newspaper means it's automatically buried since no one reads it.

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    Replies
    1. Tony found it.

      So evidently someone reads The Star, huh dumbass.

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  11. Reading the Star article reveals that they've let the place go to hell, now they want a tax to fix it. They also own competitive properties across the street. Can someone look to see if TIFs were used on those to give them a competitive advantage against themselves that they now want us to clean up?

    And is it as simple as: If we raise rates, we'll lose business but if we keep rates the same, but raise the taxes, no one notices. And does this affect the Raphael next door?

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  12. If The Intercontinental was an airline 98% of their fleet would be grounded due to lousy maintenance.

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  13. At the risk of interjecting actual facts into the conversation: the Hotel is NOT asking for any public money. It is asking to form a Civic Improvement District -- a CID -- that consists ENTIRELY of the property it already owns. This would allow it to impose a "tax" on its own customers ONLY.

    Why not just raise rates or menu prices? Apparently, there is an advantage to be able to advertise a room at @$195 a night rather than at $200 -- even though the added tax makes the final cost the same.

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  14. these kinds of tricks are why european hotels are required to present their prices including taxes, such as their vat taxes.

    same for restaurants.

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  15. They should either look for investment capital, business loans or reorganization under bankruptcy. Not a citizen in this town could expect the city to bail them out if they were in a financial mess or needed to upgrade their business or home. If a business can not survive without tax payers bailing them out then we need to be asking what is in it for the tax payers - not the local yokel cronies who will get their fingers in the pie. I still can not believe that a city government has the authority to make these decisions with little to no scrutiny. How did the dumb asses in KC ever let things get in such a state?

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  16. Front page above the fold in the newspaper nobody reads = Worthless. If TV don't pick it up. It don't matter.

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  17. the local newspaper now has little influence as a promoter of good government or as a good faith informer and commentator on issues.

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  18. The Star's editors, reporters and pundits sold their souls, first to the Democrats and then to city administration, all for a little more time of pretend relevance.

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  19. Just to inject facts, it is a tax, collected by the City. Why should the City act as their tax collector if the City gets nothing from it but more work?

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  20. It's Community Improvement District, not Civic Improvement District. There's nothing civic about a multi-million dollar business trying to increase sales taxes to cover their maintenance woes. Thanks Cardella for interjecting... (rolls eyes)

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  21. What properly managed hospitality company would not have a mechanism to set aside funds for updates and remodels?


    Clearly you've answered your own question. The subject of this article tells you all you need to know. Read the Star's article again. All answers are found in plain sight. Use those analytical skills.

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  22. I see Phil the swill once again trips over his own dick.

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  23. Phil answered the question. CIDs exist to fool customers on the amount they are actually paying. In addition if the hotel raised prices 1% then the they would only keep less than .9% since they would pay tax on the 1%. Now 1/10 of 1% may not sound like much but on millions in revenue it counts up.

    But the larger question is why should the city help a business hide the actual cost of its product?

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  24. Cardarella seems to be enabling this asinine request by the Intercontinental.

    And I believe Councilman Lucas and Councilwoman Shields (Cardarella's wife) were quoted as favoring the owner's request.

    The Intercontinental is asking for KCMO municipal government to use their taxing authority (threat) to allow a private business to have an unfair advantage in the marketplace. That is plain wrong.

    If the Intercontinental Hotel on the Country Club Plaza is granted "blight" designation, then the KC Council is tacitly admitting that the entire city is blighted.

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  25. SEE BELOW...this is the slimy company asking for the handout...850 million in gross revenues, and they want a tax to pay for their hotel?? WTF?

    TPG Hotels & Resorts’ senior operational and development executives lead a national workforce of more than 10,000 highly skilled hospitality professionals dedicated to effectively balancing the priorities of the brands and ownership groups, while delivering exceptional guest experiences. A privately owned second-generation company with corporate offices in Rhode Island and regional offices throughout the United States, TPG Hotels & Resorts generates more than $850 million in gross annual revenue.

    CHECK IT...
    Do you think the company that runs this hotel needs the handout of a 1% tax to renovate their hotel, they can afford to pay for this..They just renovated the Hilton at the airport, now they cant afford to renovate the Intercontinental? This is a total scam-

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