The details of the Citadel Cash Giveaway include some of the most disgusting and convoluted items in recent Kansas City political history . . . The fact that taxpayers might be forced to pay for this disaster is enough to make even the most committed KC resident seriously lament how business is done in this cowtown.
AN EXTRA SPECIAL THANK YOU TO A COUPLE OF AWESOME TKC TIPSTERS FOR PROVIDING THIS INFORMATION!!!
Courtesy of the very awesome readers of this blog who don't want to see KC go into debt over a glorified and expensive strip mall . . . Please read the memo regarding this project posted FIRST here at TKC.
Here are the highlights with a bit of jpeg proof:
ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE THIS DEAL WILL NEGATIVELY IMPACT KANSAS CITY'S CREDIT RATING!!!
KANSAS CITY CAN'T VERIFY HOW MUCH THE DEVELOPER HAS CONTRIBUTED!!!
THERE'S NO REAL REPAYMENT PLAN FOR THIS MAJOR KANSAS CITY GIVEAWAY!!! JUST THE HOPE THAT THE HOT MESS WILL INCREASE TAX REVENUE OVERALL!!! It won't.
THE REAL COST OF THE PROJECT IS MORE THAN $90 MILLION!!!
This whole thing is nothing more than a disaster in the making.
It gets worse . . .
Right now $20.5 million of appropriated projects i.e. projects that have been planned and budgeted for, are going to be cut to fund Citadel. IF the bonds to replace those PIAC dollars can’t be sold (likely) those PIAC projects will be dead in the water.
OR . . . the General Fund will be raided to pay for them despite some of the misleading language in the document featured above which suggests otherwise. Make no mistake . . . This Citadel funding scheme is setting up yet another raid on the General Fund.
Here's another important question that nobody is asking:
If the Citadel is such a viable project, why can’t the developers find private financing dollars?
On the subject of transparency: The voters approved the renewal of the Capital Improvements Tax (which funds PIAC) based on transparency and neighborhoods getting more money for improvements. This financing scheme is a slap in the face to every citizen who voted to support the tax.
Real talk . . . I'm kind of sad and really disappointed to hear that this infinitely stupid scheme is allegedly part of a bit of horse trading involving Mayor Funky and Council dude Terry Riley. Nobody can fault Riley for trying to bring big cash home for the Eastside . . .
BUT MAYOR FUNKY PROMISED TO BE SMART WITH THE MONEY!!!
If Mayor Funkhouser has any sense of decency or even a modicum of commitment to his big campaign promises . . . He'll follow TKC orders and help to kill this thing.
I'm hoping that the City Council will see the light and move to at least hold up this money wasting proposition.
A very wise TKC commenter (an oddity unto itself) provided a bit of City Hall info in order to contact and call elected officials today before they ram this one through . . . That's not a bad idea.
Consider:
City Services and City Hall employees were cut because of budget concerns . . .
Funding for police was cut and cops are now off the street during one of the most violent years on record so far . . .
This is the same kind of cash giveaway that Kansas City voters have been frustrated with for so long and it's why Mayor Funky was initially voted into office . . . Albeit by a thin margin.
In any event . . . The Mayor might not even be in town to deal with this . . . And ever since The Star fired veteran local government reporter DeAnn Smith they've pretty much given up on reporting on what's really going on a City Hall.
So, like it or not, it's up to citizen media and KC political watchers concerned about this town's finances to attempt to stop Kansas City from moving closer and closer to bankruptcy by funding a pointless project doomed to failure.
Obviously, nobody else cares.
Nice work T.
ReplyDeleteYou think Block got so big from giving away money? Duh.
ReplyDeleteThis is good TKC. The Flunk has a terrible problem with this one although he will miss the vote today because he is on the love train with Gloria. It fits his blind position to only supporting economic development east of Troost, but has to worry about his right wing supporters up north who should be adamently opposed to this give away.
ReplyDeletesad that you're the only one reporting on this in any depth. people have to seriously consider vacating this dump
ReplyDeleteRiley also used his "influence" over Shelly McThomas at the KC Board of Elections to undermine the recall signature count, in return for Funk supporting this project.
ReplyDeleteShelly McThomas is the ex wife of former Freedom Inc President Mark Bryant, which means that the Board is now a patronage dumping hole for Freedom Inc. and that crowd can control elections and recall campaigns.
So Riley was able to stop the recall effort as part of his deal with Funkhouser.
Mike Sanders appointed McThomas instead of a highly qualified Latina candidate. This is all tied together with a big corrupt bow. They could not trust a powerful and smart Latina to do their dirty work, so they put McThomas in the position.
To From the Center:
ReplyDeleteSandy dear, you are not supposed to be blogging on County time even if you think you are anonymous.
WOW,T, that's great work. This thing is a fraud. Look at the Ordinance Fact Sheet on your link to the Finance Department report. The Ord Fact Sheet, page 2, projects sales per square foot of $350! What a joke! If built, this will never do more than $175 a square foot. Someone should go to jail over this!! And my street and sidewalks in Waldo still look like crap! Now they want to steal our PIAC money!
ReplyDeleteHeh. Every single day I am more pleased with my decision to move out of the Kansas City, MO. city limits back in 1990.
ReplyDeleteThe documentation you link to compares the 63rd and Prospect area with Zona Rosa. I'm sorry, but the income level of the surrounding community is nowhere near as affluent as the Zona Rosa neighborhoods.
Who is going to shop there? Have they done any kind of study on what kind of sales tax income the strip mall might eventually receive?
It makes no sense.
don't they already have a shopping center down there called "The Landing"?
ReplyDeleteoh yea, it's already been built and now sits empty. You can't re-direct AND steal money from a project that's already done and gone.
my bad.
Boondoggle plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm.
ReplyDeletewhere exactly do they dream up those "10,000% over reality" numbers that they are using to show what it will make? How are they able to commit felony's in city hall like this one without being thrown in jail? do they know when they do these kind of shenanigans with public money that they could possibly go to federal prison, or are they just ignorant. where exactly do they expect the overly optimistic money numbers to come from? last i've heard, there aren't that many people from outside the k.c. area looking to move to 63rd and Prospect. so that means that whoever is spending money there will just be moving the money they spend from one business to another in k.c. and instead of the money going straight into the vault as sales tax it will go straight to the developers or to pay down the loan.
btw, just because CIMO and PIAC have their own official names doesn't mean that we have to use those names. i would like to go with "The Office of Lying Thieves and Swindlers" in place of what we know as CIMO and "The Kings of Bullshit" for PIAC.
btw, a friend of a friend spotted dear 'ol kendall blackwood inside an unnamed "alternative lifestyle" lounge here in k.c. snuggling with his boy toy during what was supposedly a private event. i guess it was.
This is a deal that is linked with the White rail Plan that Clay is going to put on the ballot. Clay knows who the back door boys at the Citadel are and he is trying to use them to get east of Troost support for his newest Train Scheme.
ReplyDeleteI think that it might be interesting to find out who has agreements to be part of the ownership. Do you think that Terry Riley or any of the rest of the ol Cleaver bunch are signed up. The Star today had Cleaver backpedaling
on his FooFoo statements.
Next we will hear how Cleaver will get the transit money from the United States blah blah
Wow - Tony did a big boy post wif a weal doc-u-ment! Way to go Tony!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see this top-notch blogging, complete with supporting documents. It's even more heartening to read the comments of those who follow this type of disaster at City Hall. PLEASE contact your council representatives! Tell them what you think, and contact the at-large candidates, too! The entire city votes for them, so they need to hear from all parts of KCMO about how no district wants to get screwed over with this Citadel debacle! Click www.kcmo.org, then click on Mayor/Council and you'll find numbers for every councilman/woman. Make your voices heard. Tony has educated you; now run with it!
ReplyDeleteFave line on page 9
ReplyDelete"Staff has not revisited the assumptions."