Saturday, January 8, 2011

Truman Sports Complex

What The Mayor Thinks:

Decades ago, when the economics of both professional sports and local government were very different, a “gentleman’s agreement” evolved in which the city verbally agreed to help Jackson County with their obligation to the stadiums by chipping in $2 million a year to help defray the costs of maintaining the Truman Sports Complex. That agreement was made long before the advent of lucrative sports profit-sharing plans, and long before the population explosion in suburban cities surrounding the urban core.
The $2 million annual subsidy, of necessity, comes straight out of the city’s general fund – the same pot of money used to fix roads, repair sidewalks and provide other basic services like snow removal and police patrols.
But there is another inequity. Most Kansas Citians are taxed three times for the stadiums – once as a resident of Kansas City, once as a resident of Jackson County, and once as a resident of the State of Missouri.  Independence residents don’t pay for stadium upkeep three times. Lee’s Summit residents don’t pay three times. And Raytown residents don’t pay three times.
I agree wholeheartedly with the people I hear from each week at town halls, or each year around budget time. The city’s money should be spent keeping our neighborhoods safe and well maintained. We no longer can afford to help Jackson County pay its obligations to the Sports Complex.

What The Mayor Has Done:

Since my election, your city government has had to grapple with significant budget shortfalls; some related to the global recession and others created by decisions made by City Councils past. As I poured through the numbers that first budget cycle and looked for ways to protect basic services, that $2 million donation to Jackson County continued to haunt me.
In years past, the City of Kansas City has entered into too many bad deals, binding its residents to decades of financial inequity. Those deals cost us each and every year, and hamper our ability to provide the services necessary to offer a City that Works to our residents.
This verbal promise made years ago is one deal we can, and should, put a stop to, I reasoned.
How could I defer street maintenance one more year, shrink our transit funding and reduce our public safety funding in order to continue to subsidize Jackson County’s sports stadiums?
I recommended against doing so each budget year and began to explore dedicated and permanent funding streams to fulfill Jackson County’s commitment. I met with team officials, county officials and sports authority officials. Not surprisingly, they’d rather just have the city’s money.

What The Mayor Plans to Do:

I’m not done pushing yet, and ultimately I will succeed. I have to for the financial wellbeing of the city. General fund money should be used to pay for services that provide the lifeblood of our city. We need more cops. We need $13 billion in improvements to roads, bridges, sewers and facilities. We don’t need to continue to pay for more than our share of regional amenities like the Truman Sports Complex.

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