After spending part of his holiday in swimming trunks, president-elect Buff Bam arrived in D.C. this week and dug into the difficult task of salvaging the economy. In recent weeks, he's outlined his vision
for a stimulus package that would put federal dollars into shovel-ready
infrastructure projects. This week his aides hinted that the tab for Obama's plan
could reach $775 billion.
States and cities are scrambling for a piece of it, and KCMO leaders have prepared a lengthy wish list. Th
In the waning days of her reign, former Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Kay Barnes tried to defend the city's extensive use of tax-increment financing (TIF). A stinging city audit said the TIF program had produced $233 million less than original projections. The normally cool Barnes called the report "biased" and "outrageous" at a press conference.A criticism of TIF is that in many cases it simply slides development from one part of town to another. The tax-incentivized Wal-Mart on the site of the
We have a housing department again, which is nice. And the city seemed well on its way to getting its assets back. Remember how a federal judge ordered that a receiver control all of the city's properties and its loan portfolio until the city's housing program gets its shit together? And how the city paid $350,000 to hire Chicago-based experts at Applied Real Estate Analysis to tell the staff what to do? Well, wouldn't it suck if you paid someone to do your homework for you, only to have it hand
