Subject: Taxes

• East Bay Writer Worked From the Inside at H&R Block

  April 18, 2008

• Drinking and smoking

  The word "taxes" makes people act irrationally. Take, for instance, this wide-ranging tax plan from New York State, which would tax everything from clothes to boats to license plates to caloric (non-diet) soft drinks. It's already got a catchy nickname -- the obesity tax -- and, not surprisingly, has already the ire of soft drink manufacturers. I received this dandy of a press release yesterday from the Center for Consumer Freedom. Titled "Taxing Soda May Shrink New York's Bloated Deficit, but I

  December 16, 2008

• Return To Sender

  August 8, 2002

• Best Bureaucrat

  October 17, 2002

• Highway Robbery

  December 18, 2003

• Buy your cigarettes now. Cigarette tax two days away

  Flickr: Valerie EverettIf you smoke, this post won't be news because you've noticed the price of cigarettes jump in the past two weeks. Tobacco companies are getting ready for the increased federal tobacco tax by raising their own prices. (Can someone explain how tobacco companies raising the price of a pack 80 cents will help consumers "adjust," as the companies have put it? It just seems a way to eke more profit.)On Wednesday, the federal tax will go from 39 cents per pack to $1.01. All the ex

  March 30, 2009

• With all of his talk about the “middle class,” Congressman Sam Graves sounds like the idiot on Main Street

  January 22, 2009

• A pixilated Santa, an inflated TIF handout and related writers

  December 18, 2008

• It’s time to call bullshit on conservatives’ tired argument about Democrats and tax increases

  August 28, 2008

• Barbecue baron Ollie Gates has a plan to save a slice of Kansas City

  June 19, 2008

• Missouri gubernatorial candidate Sarah Steelman is campaigning against the earnings tax. If only she'd sub it out for a land tax

  May 22, 2008

• Nickeled- and-Dimed

  That latté you're drinking includes a shot of taxation without representation.

  August 16, 2007

• Tax Relief

  August 2, 2007

• Lifestyles of the Rich and Subsidized

  Kansas City has an expensive habit of paying for every developer’s champagne wishes and caviar dreams.

  May 26, 2005

• Letters from the week of June 28

  June 28, 2007

• Crossroads Cruelty

  June 14, 2007

• Hot Girls and Taxes

  With la familia as with the federales: You can't have it both ways. Who what: Illegals paying taxes|chicas caliente|big families

  April 19, 2007

• Thanks. Now Scram

  February 1, 2007

• Low-Quality Hill

  August 17, 2006

• Tax Ax

  H&R Block deducts a whistle-blower from its staff.

  March 28, 2002

• Extreme Makeover: Taxman Edition

  May 11, 2006

• Ask the Boss Bitch

  March 23, 2006

• Always Low Prices?

  Wal-Mart might save Blue Ridge Mall, but first it needs a little help from taxpayers.

  December 9, 2004

• Bistate Curious

  The millionaires need more of your money, so think big, baby!

  October 21, 2004

• He’s No Angel

  Developer Wayne Reeder may have a prison record, but the city’s banking on him.

  September 16, 2004

• High-Class Handout

  Tax incentives help trim the décor of luxury condos near the Plaza.

  May 20, 2004

• War Games

  The Liberty Memorial Association wants Kansas Citians to finish a job they never approved.

  February 5, 2004

• Straight to Video

  Who will be the city's next tax break survivor?

  January 29, 2004

• Dance Revolution

  The latest battle of Westport: taxation without representation.

  January 22, 2004

• Busted

  Rich developers helped bankrupt the city's bus system, and now you're being asked to bail it out.

  October 23, 2003

• He's The Scrap Man

  Bankruptcy-claiming, codes violating Tom Wright reigns over blocks of junked-up Troost.

  July 10, 2003

• That's the Breaks

  Far be it from the outgoing City Council to set a policy.

  April 10, 2003

• Bad Company

  Lawrence learns a hard lesson about corporate promises.

  March 20, 2003

• Cash Test

  Ford fights a tax increase by treating Claycomo officials like dummies.

  January 9, 2003

• Press Run

  With its new plant, the Star banishes a downtown business to Kansas.

  December 5, 2002

• Little Blight Lies

  Seeking tax kickbacks, developers trash the city with blight studies.

  July 11, 2002

• Legal Vacancy

  A big-shot lawyer loses his touch with a city board.

  July 18, 2002

• Mary Quite Contrary

  In the battle over school funding, moderate Johnson County Republicans say Mary Pilcher Cook is their worst teachers' pest.

  July 18, 2002

• Blight Crawlers

  Bannister Mall developers feed on the bottom.

  February 14, 2002

• Tax Dodge

  Lawsuits defile H&R Block's credibility.

  April 12, 2001

• Déjà Vu All Over Again

  Overland Park may soon hear a giant sucking sound: Sprint going the way of Hoechst Marion Roussel.

  July 13, 2000

• The Cost of the Game

  Kansas and Missouri legislators are crafting a second bistate tax proposal with the help of major league sports teams and the business community. Some people, including economists, raise questions about what taxpayers will get for their money -- if anyt

  March 30, 2000

• Daily Briefs: Emm Oh Enn Ee Why

  Daily Briefs is now for sale: Let's say you're a rich guy, or a big rich corporation, and you keep all your cash overseas in offshore havens, safely protected from U.S. taxes, thereby freeing you up to collect Lipizzaner stallions and priceless chandeliers. Pretty sweet life you've got there, Thurston, now have your man bring the car around so you can drive to your Jew-restricted golf club and eat the sandwiches of rich people, club sandwiches. As regards your offshore tax haven, Pres. Barack

  May 6, 2009

• Senate proposes crazy taxes on beer, wine and liquor

  A wise philosopher (actually just a professor of mine) once said that history doesn't repeat but it does follow trends. I thought of that quote when reading that the U.S. Senate is considering a proposal to raise the federal excise tax on wine 233 percent, on beer 145 percent and on liquor 20 percent. Doesn't the Senate know what happened the last time the country was in a crippling economy and alcohol was hard to get? It's also proposing a "sugar-sweetened beverage excise tax."Those are just tw

  May 22, 2009

• Beer enemies join forces

  The film Beer Wars painted the world of brewing as a ferocious battle between little guys such as Dogfish Head and New Belgium being bullied by the multi-national giants of Miller, Coors and especially Anheuser-Busch. One of director Anat Baron's targets was the powerful lobbying group the Beer Institute, which she implied was the bane of the small brewer, pushing only the agenda of Anheuser-Busch. According to The Atlantic, though, The Beer Institute has now joined forces with its arch-nemesis,

  June 10, 2009

• The city notifies Wal-Mart
  that one of its dead stores
  is a nuisance

  July 9, 2009

• STAR, TIF... WTF?

  Courtesy of Populous​Owners of the Kansas City Wizards now want to build a stadium at Village West in Kansas City, Kansas. In this week's feature, I describe how the decision jolted public officials in Kansas City, Missouri, who thought the Wizards were going to kick soccer balls at the site of the old Bannister Mall.KCK's capture of the Wizards is being credited to Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) bonds. A state program, STAR bonds essentially created Kansas Speedway and the Village West shopping

  September 16, 2009

• Pushing for a new hotel, KC’s convention officials try to seduce us with the same old lines

  October 15, 2009

• Police catch up with Letti Strait

  Letti Strait​Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd announced yesterday that authorities were hunting for Letti Strait on tax evasion charges. The 48-year-old Parkville woman made headlines in 2007 when her ex-husband, Charles Cammisano, was found shot several times at his Riverside home. Police considered Strait and another man "persons of interest" in the unsolved murder; Strait was taken into police custody after a standoff, but later released. No charges have been filed in Cammisano's death.&

  October 27, 2009

• P&L District's worth fluctuates at Cordish's convenience

  ​When the Cordish Co. officials want to impress, they say the Power & Light District represents an $850 million investment. But when the time comes for the company to pay taxes on the downtown development, its value falls off a cliff.For the second consecutive year, Cordish has fought Jackson County's determination of the worth of the Power & Light District. In 2008, Cordish sued the county, arguing that a segment of the district appraised at $61 million was really worth $12 million. T

  October 27, 2009