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Jul
14
Taxpayer-subsidized mega projects trying to squeeze local governments out of even more money
July 14, 2009 | 1 Comment
Today the KC Star reports that both the Legends shopping center and the Nebraska Furniture Mart in KCK’s Village West development are protesting their property tax bills and trying to get their valuations reduced. The story is similar in KCMO where earlier this year the Power & Light District protested its property tax valuation.
Both developments received tens of millions of dollars in public subsidies, effectively reducing their tax bills. Now they are seeking even better deals at a time KCK is dealing with a $15 million budget deficit and KCMO just cut $80 million from its budget. The main argument for these tax breaks is that they spur development and ultimately result in more revenue for local governments, but in these cases it would seem that they logic isn’t quite working.
Categories: Business, Real Estate
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These twin examples of unrestrained development causing problems for the financial well being of the community were forecast by Mayor Funkhouser over 2 years ago. He puts it aptly: Barnes/Cauthen “maxed out our credit cards”. Now we see the equally imperial Kansas unrestrained developer matching the behavior of Missouri’s unrestained developer.
Note that it takes City Councils to grant the development incentives that are now robbing the resources for the real services people need.
The City Councils, and their “leaders”, are the bad guys here.
I wish that the current Council of KCMO would follow their own promises, and reestablish the City office, ( cut by Wayne Cauthen ), that studies the total cost/benefit to KCMO. This Council is trying it’s darndest to recreate the Barnes “bad ‘ol times”.