If the sales tax rate isn’t high enough in Kansas City, just wait until later this year when it has the potential to ratchet up by another 3/8-cent if the Mayor, the Greater Kansas City Chamber and those sign-toting, protesting types down at CCO get their way. CCO stands for Communities Creating Opportunity, for those of you following at home. This former neighborhood presidential news-dog has never thought much of the CCO bunch and thinks even less of them these days given they’ve taken up every Socialistic cause that comes down the pike. But we digress. The Mayor, who never met a tax he didn’t like, spent some time last week surprising his Council people with the concept of developing a better Pre-K system for kids and letting the taxpayers of Kansas City pay for it. Hey, why not, right? Every tax that’s put in front of the voting public has been approved.

Apparently the Mayor is doing such a good job at running the city, he’s got enough spare time to hob-knob with his chamber cronies and the CCO bunch to stick his fingers into the Pre-K education pie. Seven years in office and he’s still searching for more tax and spend legacy projects. But what’s another 3/8 cent among friends, right? Here’s some quick math for you trying to keep up with the skyrocketing tax rate in this cowtown. As we expertly noted in an April 2018 editorial entitled “Leave Us Alone,” the tax rate downtown in the P&L District is already 12.6%. Passing this new tax, ostensibly for the children, (and nobody wants to be against the children after all), would hike the base rate to 13%. That makes your $10 downtown lunch $11.30 with tax. Figure the gratuity on that bill at 20% and you’re looking at a 33% lug before you get out the door.

We warned in April about the Mayor thinking the citizens of this city are a giant piggy bank he gets to break open every time the need suits him. This time he’s brought friends from CCO and the Chamber of Commerce to help. No wonder he didn’t like State Representative Phil Christofanelli’s House Bill 2168 that caps sales and use taxes at 14%. Whether it’s for the children or not, we’ll steal a quote from the Mayor in regard. Leave us Alone!