Taxpayer Subsidized Shopping Malls Attack The Spirit Of Christmas In Kansas City

Brilliant think piece from Patrick Tuohey offers facts and figures on the sketchy shenanigans of subsidized consumer hangouts in Kansas City and beyond. Take a look:

The Grinch who stole your taxes: Subsidized shopping malls

In Missouri and around the country, city mayors light festively decorated Christmas trees to announce the beginning of the Christmas season and all the economic activity that comes with it. But like the Grinch himself, the taxpayer-subsidized shopping centers where much of that activity will take place amount to a thief in the night dressed as jolly Saint Nick.

Comments

  1. But. All the subsidized mall, developments and assorted ventures do line the pockets of politicians and their friends.......and they have a merrier Christmas. A happy ending.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What about all our tax money that went to support black people? Now that is a waste.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As Independence is learning the hard way, soon those malls will grow empty and the tax payers will be stuck, for years to come, in a situation where we pay the bills and the empty shops generate zero tax revenue. All the more reason city governments need to stop competing with its own citizens, involve itself in purely governmental functions and learn to function within their means without this constant fiscal irresponsibility.

    ReplyDelete
  4. During the time that the City and the Developers have been wrangling over a outright grant of free land and additional TIF guarantees to build a "Downtown Convention Hotel", TWO larger capacity hotels have been privately built and opened downtown with no TIF or grant money involved. They were built because it made economic sense to build them.

    Do not grant the guarantees, ignore threats to build elsewhere (I'll take my marbles and go home! Go ahead!) and let things develop as they will.

    Of course, there won't be any repeats of situations like we had with Kay Barnes, whose entire career consisted of one term on the City Council followed by ten years running the TIF Commission, after which she "magically" had $2.75 million in "personal" funds to devote to her campaign for Mayor. "Personal" funds which, I might add lead her to mortgage the City's future for twenty-five years so the Kansas Developers could "renew" Downtown, saddling the KC Taxpayers with an ongoing ulcerous "money pit" gnawing at our economy for decades to come.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ^^^ best comment of the day!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

TKC COMMENT POLICY:

Be percipient, be nice. Don't be a spammer. BE WELL!!!

- The Management