This morning Kansas City tax fighters share an important word about the new trend corporate welfare tax breaks . . . Here are some GREAT questions and analysis of the new hotness in Kansas City taxing schemes:
Whack-A-Mole All Over Again!
CFRG along with many others predicted there would be more requests for CIDs from individual businesses once the word got out about the InterContinental Hotel presenting their proposal to establish a CID for a single business. Last week before the vote was even postponed, the Marriott / Muehlebach Hotel announced their plans to form a CID to remodel their facility. They expanded on the InterContinental’s bid and are asking for additional taxpayer funds to pay for 50% of their remodel. They reason they gave is the LCRA, a city entity, owns the ground under the facility and the parking garage therefore the City should pay 50%. Could this be a conflict of interest? The City loans taxpayer money to an entity they are involved in.. What’s next??
Questions:
1.) Is it time for the City to auction off the land and parking garage under the Downtown Marriott / Muehlebach Hotel to a REIT? This is prime real estate and could fetch a pretty penny to spend on other necessities the city needs. It would also get the city out of one the real estate deals it is involved in. These two businesses need to stand on their own two feet and not get the city involved in their daily operations. If they threaten to leave, let them go. There will be people in line to get those properties.
2.) Have you wondered why a couple of our council people are so adamant about passing this CID request? We believe that alone deserves more investigation. We need to watch carefully who votes to get our City involved in this.
We know we have asked you a couple times to call and email your councilperson to tell them NO WAY on the CID for the InterContinental. This is a precedent setting vote that should be stopped NOW. One more time please email and call your councilperson and tell them to vote against this proposal. Please send this to all your friends and ask them to call . . .
Citizens for Responsible Government
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What is a REIT?
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