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.