Mar

26

Bistate III – Back to basics

March 26, 2008 | 3 Comments

The Star’s Kevin Collison has a column on the issue of regional funding for regional cultural assets like the Zoo, Liberty Memorial, and performing arts center. In it, he raises the idea of trying again for bistate tax.  The original idea of bistate was to fund arts and cultural facilities and programs, but it was hijacked first by Union Station and then by the Chiefs and Royals.

With KCMO talking about slashing budget allocations for these facilities and places like Union Station still looking for funding, arts bigwigs may be getting ready to start talking Bistate III.  In the past, opinion polling has supposedly show strong public support in the both the city and suburbs. As often happens, there are comparisons with St. Louis. The key difference is that St. Louis has a regional property tax where both city and suburbs pay to support the zoo, art museum, science center, etc.

One big difference this time around is that the suburbs have several candidates for regional funding. Johnson County Community College has recently opened a new modern art museum, in addition to its existing performing arts center. Children’s museums in Joco and KCK are talking about merging and will likely need money for a new facility. Strong community orchestras exist in the Northland and Eastern Jackson County. Bistate III could help sustain core cultural assets while also boosting the arts in the suburbs.

Categories: Bistate


Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. Ed Roberts on March 26, 2008 8:12 am

    KC has so disenfranchised their citizens with these “pay for X” taxes that it’s a wonder how these things have a chance of passing any more. Seriously… it seems like 75% of these initiatives get absorbed into KCMO’s continuing debt, reallocated to another project, and the original program VOTED ON never gets it’s funding.

    With bistate III, I don’t know if I’d trust that my tax dollars actually make it to the place I voted to send them.

  2. Wayne Flaherty on March 26, 2008 9:06 pm

    Ed is right on target with his thoughts about KCMO taxes not reaching the designated source. Only recently the police chief discovered the city had been taking money from him. Every KCMO tax has a part of it reserved for TIF payments. Bi-State II would have seen Johnson County put in $440 million and get back only $40 million. Hell, we can do better than that down at the casinos. KCMO is only interested in the suburbs for the money they can get out of them. Now they are talking about a billion dollar light rail project at the same time they are trying to figure out how to provide assistance for those people who won’t be able to pay their water/sewer bills. For the price of just one mile of light rail they could buy 250 to 300 ultra-modern BRT buses. The proposed 3/8 cent light rail tax will only net them $23 million per year to build a light rail line costing $50 to $70 million per mile. That means it could take 2 to 3 years to build a single mile of light rail and then there is no money to operate it. Lets get real.

  3. Olathe Resident on March 27, 2008 11:17 pm

    As a JoCo resident, KC gets plenty of my money, in the form of a 1% payroll tax, for which I get NOTHING. Heck, they can’t even get the traffic lights timed correctly on NW 112th St. where I work, so I get to sit at a red light for two minutes with no traffic around at midnight each evening leaving work.
    JoCo residents pay more than their fare share for what little resources we use in KC.

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