810 Talking about taxes Wednesday

[kc rush]

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.