By the time that the special election on whether or not to preserve Kansas City's earnings tax rolls around in April 2011, voters may find themselves suffering from campaign fatigue.
That's why it's all the more important to educate potential voters on the issue ASAP, says Michael Fletcher, a local attorney and candidate for City Council, 3rd District. The one-percent earnings tax generates $200 million annually to the city's general fund. The campaign to save it could cost $1 million. What's problematic for Fletcher are the names of political consultants who are being considered to potentially oversee the campaign. They're all white.
Previously, Pat O'Neill of O'Neill Communications LLC., Kim Carlos of KC Consulting, and veteran political kingmaker Pat Gray were the rumored finalists to run the campaign, Fletcher says. The Plog has learned that Gray won the job and is currently in the
midst of building his team. (Gray is white. And that sentence kind of
blows the Plog's mind.)
Fletcher says he's the most vocal member of a larger group of
influential folks on the city's east side who have vowed to turn their
backs on the e-tax issue unless they're invited into the discussion. "Literally, if there's not minority participation, we are not going
along with it," Fletcher tells the Plog. "There's no question about that, period."
What it comes down to, Fletcher says, is messaging. Blacks and Latinos comprise more than 40 percent of the city's voting population, he estimates, and yet the issues at stake if the e-tax is repealed don't automatically resonate with those populations.
"It can't get worse for us if you keep excluding us," Fletcher says. "If you tell us that we're going to have fewer cops (if the e-tax is repealed), that doesn't hurt our feelings. The reality is that the relationship in the black community with the police department is bad. ... If you say that fewer funds are going to go to impact city projects, the fact of the matter is there has not been a single city project that has hired a significant number of African Americans or Latinos. So how would that impact us negatively? Fewer city services? Really? See, if you're giving us zero, and you're telling us we don't matter, why would we vote for this issue?"
What the Civic Council, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and City Hall should be doing, in Fletcher's opinion, is identifying political consultants with proven connections to the inner city and to minorities in order to figure out how to market the e-tax issue to those voters. But, Fletcher says, in official meetings about, in his words, "the most important issue in the city," not one non-white face has been invited to join the discussion.
"Right now, this is set up to end poorly," Fletcher says. "This is a special issue election, which means less than 10 percent of the population is going to turn out. When you have an election of that size, the minority population is inherently important. ... If you want to win an election which is going to be disproportionately filled with minorities, offending and excluding minorities is probably not a good idea. They just don't get it. They didn't get it on [Robin] Carnahan's campaign and they don't get it now."
Requests for comment from the City Manager's Office and Gray have gone unanswered for now. We'll update accordingly.
Showing 1-4 of 4
Just what we need in KC, another black politician more interested in dividing up a shrinking pie than in helping grow opportunities and judge individuals on their merits, positions, ideas, and accomplishments.
It's hard to change the status quo, but that's what real leadership is about. Instead, what Fletcher is doing is pandering to the same old self-appointed crowd that has brought the east side to where it finds itself today.
Here's the new boss; same as the old boss!
So, Fletcher admits that basic services are at about ZERO which is what the general fund's money is to be used for.... so WHY are we voting to keep the e-tax again?
Some of these politicians make NO sense.
Repeal the dang tax, put the money back into the resident's pockets. Let them choose how to spend the money.
like
dislike
