Northeast News
July 15, 2015
This dog is a fan of the classics and last week the tax-paying business base of Kansas City was taught a huge lesson in how brown-nosing can pay off in a big way.
The city’s Planning and Zoning committee signed off on a massive tax abatement scheme, er, bailout plan for the Daily Rag, otherwise known as theKansas City Star. McClatchy, The Star’s parent company, is seeking over $16 million in tax abatements (bailout money) on their green glass cube of a building at 17th and Grand.
Where does the brown nosing come in you ask? Let’s take a look at The Star’s Editorial Board shall we? Yael Abouhalkah, Lewis Duiguid and Mary Sanchez have all, through the pages of The Star, fallen in line with almost every cockamamie taxing scheme advanced by this Mayor and his tax and spend council: Toy train streetcar, taxpayer financed downtown hotel, streetcar expansion and tax payer subsidized grocery stores to name but a few. So it seems only fitting that the Planning and Zoning committee, chaired by Ed Ford, a development lawyer by trade, mind you, and our old buddy Jim Glover, returned the favor by voting unanimously to send this behemoth of a tax break (bailout scheme) to the full council for a kiss or kill vote despite the rule of law, as quoted by Advisory Board Chairman Michael Duffy.
Think chummin’ up to the political powers that be don’t pay off, think again. Total net loss to the Kansas City Public Schools and the public library? A cool $11 million and change. Don’t look for a breaking news story from The Star on the abuse of the city’s Tax Increment Financing/353 tax abatements either. As we’ve noted on repeated occasions before in these pages, some businesses are more equal than others.
Here’s a question for Ed and Jim from this lil’ pooch. What about the tax breaks for those of us who continue to create commerce (or try to anyway) in some of the city’s most blighted areas? What about the rest of us, Ed, who continue to show up and fight the good fight with little or no fanfare? Jim? Cue the crickets. This pooch has never been a fan of brown-nosers and that doesn’t look to change anytime soon. As for the Daily Rag? If you think you’re still an ample representation of the once proud and oft feared news organization that William Rockhill Nelson founded over 130 years ago, you’re dead wrong. That storied old school newspaper left the gates of 1729 Grand Avenue a long time ago never to be seen again. Baron Bill is spinning in his grave.
