So here's what we know about the campaign to eliminate the earnings tax in Kansas City, Missouri: It's dishonest.
On Thursday, the e-tax abolishers pretended to catch the city in a lie. Like a detective raising a suspect's handcuffed wrist in the air, the campaign says the city was recently forced to admit that the entire $200 million collected by the tax does not go to police and firefighters. Of course, city officials never made such a claim.
Where does the money go? This is from a fact sheet distributed by the Save Kansas City Committee:
Total revenue from the earnings tax is approximately $200 million, which pays for essential city services, including public safety, street maintenance, trash collection and other basic needs.It's true that police and fire officials are making dire warnings about the tax disappearing; most of the revenue is used to pay cops and firefighters. But, as the Star's Yael Abouhalkah noted yesterday, no one is claiming that the e-tax is spent entirely on catching crooks and responding to alarms.
The repealers are also shrieking about the fact that a portion of the e-tax funds economic-development projects. To be sure, the e-tax's defenders aren't boasting that $16 million of the $200 million will be diverted this year to developers via tax-increment financing. But no one's denying it, either. After all, intercepting sales, property and, yes, local income taxes is pretty much what TIF is all about.
There's an ironic aspect to the e-tax repealers' TIF argument. The political shop that's waging the campaign has an office inside a business district that benefits from this form of public subsidy.
Axiom Strategies leases space at Briarcliff, a planned community north of the river. Briarcliff Development Co. began building houses in the area in the 1990s. Offices and shopping were added later. Axiom is located inside the development's Hilltop Office Building, which "offers stunning views of both downtown and the Missouri River Valley," according to the Briarcliff website.
Briarcliff has received $21 million in TIF subsidies, according to the latest records on file with the state.
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The usual suspects are claiming that draconian cuts will have to be made in police and fire protection, trash pickup and other basic services unless the Earnings Tax is retained. It all sounds so plausible. The Earnings Tax accounts for 40% of the Kansas City’s revenue. Absent the Earnings Tax, we are told, painful cuts will have to be made in order to maintain essential services at their current level.
This argument rests on two dubious assumptions.
1. That all city services should be funded at today's levels; that is, they are all necessary, there is no waste, no corruption, etc.
2. That Kansas City will have to impose cuts affecting basic services across the board because all currently funded city activities are equally important.
Before you vote on April 5, please consider these questions. The numbers cited were developed from U.S. Census population estimates and official city budget documents that are readily available online. I compared The City of Kansas City's budget against official budget documents for the cities of Omaha, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa. Kansas City's population in 2009 according to US Census estimates was 482,299. Populations for Tulsa, Omaha, and Oklahoma City were 389,625; 454,731; and 560,333 respectively.
Why does the City of Kansas City spend $2,585 per resident per year to deliver city services when Omaha, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City spend from $1,437 to $1,565 per resident per year? That's right! The City of Kansas City Missouri, the only city listed with an Earnings Tax, spends from $1,020 to $1,147 more per resident per year to deliver city services than its similarly sized midwestern neighbor cities. Why? This is a stunning disparity. Dig a little deeper into the budget documents, and the causes become apparent.
Why does the City of Kansas City have 7,194 employees while Oklahoma City, with 78,000 more residents and nearly twice the geographic area, gets by with 4,327 city workers?
Why does The City of Kansas City need 1,370 fire department employees to cover 318 square miles and 482,299 residents when Oklahoma City covers 622 square miles and 560,333 residents with just 948 fire department employees? The City of Kansas City spends $273 per resident per year for fire department services. Fire Department costs in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Omaha range from $141 to $155 per resident per year.
The City of Kansas City employs 4.5 police officers for every 1,000 residents. This compares to a range of 2.2 to 2.3 police officers per 1,000 residents in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Omaha. Kansas City covers 318 square miles and employs 6.8 police employees per square mile. Oklahoma City covers 622 square miles and gets the job done with 2.1 police employees per square mile. Kansas City spends $424 per resident per year for police services compared to a range of $184 to $235 in these neighboring cities. Why?
The people of Kansas City deserve an honest discussion about the Earnings Tax. Instead, they are targets of a dishonest advertising campaign that threatens voters with cuts to essential services and tries to demonize Earnings Tax opponents.
The Earnings Tax encourages waste, inhibits population growth, and kills jobs by discouraging new businesses from locating within the city limits. It is time for it to go away.
Frank Brady
(816) 587-1698
By the way, don't take my word for it. Look it up. The city budgets and census data are readily available online. Of course, if you don't MIND being ripped off, you can always still vote "yes".
WOW! What really surprises me is the audacity that opponents have when they won't even disclose where their funding is coming from! So who is actually donating funds to them and why can't we know? Makes me very weary when secrets are kept - how can we trust what they say if they will not even tell us where their funding is coming from?? For example, the E-Tax commercial that was just went live was 100 percent privately funded. In fact, the TV commercial includes “Paid For” information – connected directly to the individuals, companies and organizations who are proudly funding the E-Tax renewal campaign. Who is donating to the opposition? Why should I trust them??
Thats not all they lie about, they are also keeping their contributors hidden by a disclosure loophole. I say these people show their faces and take the responsibility of what will happen to the city if the e-tax does go away. They obviously don't believe in their own message. So why should we?
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