810 Talking about taxes Wednesday
 

Did anyone hear KK and crew talking about taxes in Jackson county on Wednesday, Jan 11? I listened a few minutes after 5 and they were talking about replaying their opening monologue and an interview with some Jackson county official and that if everyone knew this information, there is no way the stadium taxes would pass. Unfortunately, I arrived at my destination before they started talking about the details and I have no idea what was said. Did anyone hear it and can you provide a summary?

BTW, KK said it wasn't about the Chiefs or Royals, but taxes in Jackson County in general.

yeah, what's this? anyone have the info?

I caught part of it. Basically he said that the bill as it is written now will lead to a huge slush fund for Jackson Co executives, and it will allow them to play favorites.

He said that the language of the bill and bonds that were used for the speedway in KCK specified that if earnings through taxes exceeded the minimum payment owed, the excess would be used to pay down the principal. The language on this bill doesn’t indicate where any excesses should be applied. Based on projections he said the tax would generate around $5 million per year in excess and around $135 million over the life of the tax. This would give the execs extra money to use for whatever they wanted including giving themselves raises according to KK.

The other beef he had was with the no-bid process that they have, meaning that the execs can choose whoever they want to handle the construction and manage the bonds. KK said that one of the execs is affiliated with a construction company, so there would be kick-backs there. He also said that Catherine Shields consultant/friend/largest campaign contributor is a bonds manager, who would stand to make $9 million on the deal.

I'm leery of any ballot measure where the cost is not known. Anytime a measure says "the cost to taxpayers is unknown" I automatically vote no. If you don't even have a clue how to quantify the cost then I'm not going to vote for it.

And, in that vein, I don't see how they could know the true cost of the work here if they didn't have any bids. :shrug:

I don't think it will pass anyway.

Kansas should go ahead and start building the new stadium now.

sweet. I get tired of going to the trashy part of town with nothing to do.

The St.Louis legislators will vote against KC across the board. If Jackson Co. can't get it done on their own it won't get done, that's obvious.

I'm past the point of caring if one or both stadiums are lost to Kansas. Jackson county and the city of KC are a bunch of do-nothings. It's just prolonging the inevitable.

And yet they wonder why almost no other counties wanted to give Jackson county control of the money on the last bill.

I would love to be able to go over to dave and busters after a game instead of taco bell or drury in

Exactly. I have no problem driving out by the Speedway to see a Chiefs game. Paying for a PSL is an entirely different story, however.

Get ready, it's going to happen.

Normally, I think KK is an idiot, but he had that guy up against the ropes yesterday. I could really care if the Royals end up downtown or not, but it's pretty obvious to me that Jackson County is about as corrupt as it gets, and it's never going to change. Maybe moving them out by the racetrack would be the best thing for everyone.

I heard most of the interview as well and the guy in charge of the sports commision confirmed most of this info and said that it's in the hands of the county and the teams and sports commision can only make recommendation.

Western WyCo works for me.