Special thanks to OUR KICK-ASS BLOG COMMUNITY of insiders. Here's a look at how local government really works to keep bad news out of the headlines.
BREAKING!!! 12TH & OAK ANNOUNCE AUDIT OF VISIT KC IN THE AFTERMATH OF THEIR REPORT ON THE DOWNTOWN HOTEL ROOM GLUT!!!
As you know a decent chunk of revenue for mental health care is diverted to TIF, LCRA, Port KC, PIEA, etc etc. Tax abatement watchdogs are concerned about this news after THE AUDIT ANNOUCMENT was just handed down.
Here's the word . . .
City Hall Retaliation! On the Heels of a Report on Excess Hotel Rooms, Visit KC to be Audited
Visit KC released a credible study on downtown hotel occupancy. It confirmed what most of us suspected. KC's Tax Gimmick Extravaganza created more hotel rooms than we really need.
Wisely, Visit KC suggested we take a break from the incentive-fueled hotel construction until demand catches up. Their mistake was going public with information unflattering to City Hall bureaucrats and the symbiotic developer class. These groups rely heavily on TIF subsidies and other tax incentive goodies. Then the story took off. It spoke to KC denizens exasperated by City Hall's luxury spending spree and border war lunacy.
The high vacancy rate in downtown hotels got covered widely by the MSM and dead tree media. But now the other shoe may be dropping. Just days after the report, City Hall announces an audit of Visit KC. The audit asks "are Visit KC's performance and financial data useful to the City?" Apparently not when it calls massive tax incentives in to question. Is the audit in retaliation for Visit KC's suggesting we slow down on heavily incentivized hotels?
You decide.
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Developing . . .
Call it what it is, Sly's revenge.
ReplyDeleteNext Mayor and council need to put a stop to this, we shouldn't be punishing agencies when they tell the TRUTH about what's happening in our city. They should be encouraged to do so.
DeleteHow much money are they going to waste on this?
DeleteTheir question is dumb:
"Are Visit KC’s performance and financial data clear and useful to the city?"
Yes they are, this study could save us millions.
Better headline: KC doesn't want anybody telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteThis is a message to Visit KC to "get on the train". Are they not aware of our 24 million visitors each year? That's over 65,000 hotel rooms each and every day. I say we build another 100 hotels all within walking distance of the convention center!
ReplyDeleteVisit KC is ran by the city and anyone who thinks otherwise is brain dead.
ReplyDeleteThe Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, with the advice and consent of the City Council, appoints on-half of the members.
CHAIR – CiCi Rojas,
VICE CHAIR – Cindy Circo,
Visit KC is who the Mayor and all the cronies like to use as being the information suppliers of why tax payer money should be wasted on all this new building crap going on.
Visit KC is and was Sly's PR dept.
Audit the damn city if you want to put an end to this damn corruption.
Fat, ambulance chasing Mayor Bullhorn don't want no accountability no way!
ReplyDeleteI would have thought the 25 million visitors a year would have caused an audit. This administration abhors the truth. I wish Water Services would tick off City Hall...now that's where an audit is truly needed.
ReplyDeleteYeah I mean if we have 25 MILLION tourists a year then we need MORE hotels! People all over the country plan their annual vacation at their dinner tables and say...golly we have got to tour Kansas City!
ReplyDeleteWhat did they think would happen? Huh? Run your mouth..get checked. End of story. No surprise.
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised auntie gopher hasn’t been on here to lie and accuse people of being mean, he owes everything to bow tie sLIE and will defend him to the death.
ReplyDeleteThis story is just a blip on the screen. Nothing will change until voters act. City Hall is a conveyor belt churning out luxury highrises. And WE are paying for it.
ReplyDeleteWhen the 25 million tourists anally saves the day, everybody will kiss and make up and then everything will back to the everyday SNAFU. KCMO is upset because Visit KC did not get the narrative approved by city hall.
ReplyDeleteThis report leads one to believe momentum will be coming to a halt when the report is actually a bump in the road to greater momentum.
I haven’t stayed in a KCMO hotel in a long time and I am just curious....does anyone know the penalty that kcmo charges to rent a room at a hotel?
ReplyDeleteRecreational marijuana and legal prostitution will fill every room year round. Make it KCMO only and we challange Vegas for convention and tourists traffic.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny that gopher boi got beat out by visit kc, he’s probably been shining sLIE’s shoes so much that he wore through the leather and sLIE finally decided to retaliate just to get gopher to shut the hell up! Hahahahaha!
ReplyDelete1:12 have you seen killa shitty’s prostitutes? All the more reason to not come here! Lol!
ReplyDeleteNow if you could get all the gay conventions to come here the Westport crowd would finally have jobs!
Gay conventions? You mean gay pride parade...I mean...the aids walk?
ReplyDeleteWorst of city hall going on right here, something contradicts the narrative and they go after it big time. Just a fact that you can't tell the truth in Kansas City.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha
ReplyDeletewith the prospect nil of actually making it to something like economic and cultural soundness.
Mike Burke and Cindy Circo should head to prison for that Convention Hotel deal.
ReplyDelete1:12, I think it's 7.5%. There may well be other fees and taxes in addition to that one.
ReplyDeleteWe want tourists and conventioneers to visit Kansas City, so we penalize them 7.5% for doing so.
We want people to reside and businesses to locate in Kansas City, so we penalize them 1% of earned income for doing so.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Usual knuckleheads on this blog. Visit K C published the report so it could ask for more money for itself. Read the report.
ReplyDeleteI read the audit and seems like more house keeping than revenge
ReplyDeleteThey all want special incentives for their respective projects, then they want to stop any new competitors from arriving.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the city is overbuilt with hotels and developers are still trying to tap sugar water incentives to build more.
This foolishness ends unpleasantly with the next economic downturn.
It would be nice to see the Star actually get all the questions on the table, if not all the answers.