Today, lame duck Mayor Sly suffered a wave of opposition against his latest tax effort that might thwart the campaign before it starts.
To wit . . .
URBAN CORE LEADERS THROUGHOUT KANSAS CITY REJECTED MAYOR SLY'S SALES TAX TODAY!!!
First and strongest among this is important opposition is the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.
Insiders from this group offer pointed criticism in this introductory statement . . .
"The Urban League just came out against Sly James’ proposed early childhood education tax. The attached letter makes some great points. Early Childhood Education is very important. We should have it. This is the wrong way to pay for it.
"Under Sly's plan the inner city gets taxed, but is kept out of managing its own resources. Instead a red flag: the City Manager is involved. Given Troy Schulte’s track record, we don't need to feed his hearty appetite for slush funds.
"It is also important to say that TIF and all the other tax abatement gimmicks easily cost the struggling KCPS district $35 million annually. Sly's proposed tax will generate about that same amount! There is a pattern here: strangling public services to subsidize luxury apartments and hotels – in a saturated market – comes at a real cost: This time it's a new tax! But this one worse. It is regressive, and not surprisingly, it gives plenty of financial favors to City Hall insiders."
Even more embarrassingly fore the Mayor . . . He claimed to have the support of the KCPS but today that alleged approval was reversed. . . The school board announced it does not want the proposal on the Nov. 6 ballot.
Superintendent Mark Bedell said today: "We support early childhood expansion, we do not support this plan as it is . . ."
The opposition of both of these groups represents a major setback for the pre-K campaign and demonstrates that urban core denizens oppose a scheme that would mostly impose regressive taxes on inner-city neighborhoods.
Developing . . .
Nobody wants higher taxes. Good to see they realize this would hurt far more than it would help.
ReplyDeleteOnly arrogant Sly would think this plan makes sense. Give a few temporary benefits to students and then tax their families for life. It's just bad math. Typical City Hall.
DeleteBetter title, tax weary Kansas City
DeleteKudos to the Urban League and Superintendent Mark Bedell. Obviously they saw through Slie's BS.
ReplyDeleteSlie has never seen a development plan he does not like.
Good write up Tony.
HA HA Bowtie boy got his ass handed to him. About time at that.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, The Urban League and the school board see this plan for what it is - a slush fund/tax on the poor and middle class.
ReplyDeleteSorry to disagree with 5:11 but Democrats want higher taxes - they don't even deny it - ask them and they'll gladly admit it. In fact,
ReplyDeletethat's their philosophy - high taxes, big government.
Democrats also oppose making KCMO livable for families. I lived in KCMO my entire life but moved to JOCO once I had kids. Would have loved to stay in the city but the schools are so bad and the services and so mismanaged
ReplyDeleteMan when a total jackoff like Mark Bedell is against it, that says a lot. They have no accountability for how they spend money with no results nad the KCPS is against it? Wow.
ReplyDeleteSly and Company in City Hall were counting on people rubber-stamping his idea for "the poor kids".... Well, it appears that someone actually sat down and gave the idea some thought. They also saw Troy S. standing in the wings, anticipating all that cash flowing his way.
ReplyDeleteIf the City stops giving away the tax money to developers, the schools should have enough to implement the Pre-K program.
for once i can agree with Gwen Grant good for her
ReplyDeletesLIE is truly the smelliest turd in the political toilet. The fact that KCMO elected him is a black mark on the city that it can never justify. It’s nice to see wiser heads prevail. If you’re a sLIE fan, don’t worry about him, I’m sure his dingleberry Go4KC is consoling him.
ReplyDeleteSly's idea was terrible public policy from the start.
ReplyDeleteAnd apparently he didn't bother consulting with folks in the education community before he rolled it out.
A sales tax is the most regressive tax possible and hurts the very lower income folks the program is supposedly designed to help.
A sales tax also goes up and down with the economy, so it's not a good device for providing even funding for a program.
Education is not at all a responsibility of city government, and certainly not for the KCMO city government, which is so neglectful of providing the most basic of services that residents actually need.
But folks like the Urban League aren't against this because of all of the above reasons.
They're opposed because THEY don't have a hand in deciding how the money is spent, so it can't be spread around to the usual suspects and their supporters and friends.
And, as usual, the kids end up as the bottom priority.
It never changes.
How about getting accreditation for the grades we already have ?
ReplyDeleteMoney
Loves
preK
The inner city gets taxed? How? Is there sales tax on shoplifting?
ReplyDeleteFinally some common sense prevails. Fingers crossed, but not too optimistic. As someone said above, some folks against this are only butthurt because they couldn't get their fingers on some of the money. Nevertheless, a tax defeat in KC for old pubic head.
ReplyDeleteSo the Urban League is mad that incentives take away from the handouts given to them and other inner city people? Well isnt that the pot calling the kettle black.
ReplyDeleteNo thats the nigger calling the nigger black.
Delete