rules are rules, they aren't loopholes
sly james and the city council prefer to shove their agenda down their constituents throats (streetcar, airport, hotel) without voter input. i enjoy watching him get his hand slapped, he will learn sooner or later what politicking really means.
if this hotel is such a good deal for both the city and the developers from NY, it will be built. it's not like there aren't people out there standing in line waiting to skim public assistance from city governments with massive little brother complexes.
haha, what?
the airport and streetcar financing have nothing to do with the hotel financing. The streetcar is financed by a tax district that was approved by public vote. in fact, downtown voters voted twice, first to set up the tax district, and second to approve the exact tax/assessment. so, unless james is out there stuffing the ballot box (twice) then nothing about the streetcar has been forced down anybody's throat. The TDD is perfectly legal. you'll recall that a similar measure was presented to mid-town and plaza residents and they overwhelmingly rejected an expansion of the TDD, so the streetcar won't be expanded beyond downtown. this is how votes work.
The airport plan hasn't even been finalized. but funding for the project will be subject to a public vote.
The hotel involves the City Council unanimously voting 13-0 to offer tax incentives without public vote (the opposite of the streetcar and airport).
City's offer TIF all the time without public votes. ps, the project does not require new citywide taxes nor city guarantee of the public debt.
your rambling post is difficult to respond to but essentially you reaffirmed my point that sly james ignores the will of the people and continually assumes he knows more than his constituency. he did it with the streetcar, he's done it as much as possible with the airport, and he's now trying to do it with the hotel.
our general election results have consistently reaffirmed that KC does not support the streetcar initiative.
so, as i said, sly decided to ignore the vote, continue to push his agenda, and went the route of a new vote by creating the "transportation district" knowing he could get it passed by limiting the vote to the few hundred residents who would benefit most from the toy train.
as it relates to this hotel, the voters in kcmo have put in place the petition clause and have executed the petition. sly, in his infinite wisdom, is doing everything he can to find a way to ignore his voters once again and push through the hotel despite the objectors having the required number of signatures to push the decision to use public funds to underwrite hotel costs to a general election.
trust me when i say that i don't need you lecture me about TIF funding procedures or any public financing of capital projects.
