The post Patrick Tuohey Discusses Education, Economic Development, and KCI Airport on KCPT’s Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey discusses KC Airport on KCPT’s Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

A lot of us who looked at that [cost] issue closely at the time that voters approved [it] fully expected this. We expected it was going to be a bigger project than was approved at the time, so in that sense it is not a surprise.

When Ruckus host Mike Shanin pointed out that no one in the pro-airport campaign made this point at the time of the vote, Heeter added [start at 21:21],

I think the city needs to step forward and talk candidly with the public about these kinds of issues because there is a growing perceptional issue; that’s really important.

Heeter is no ordinary pundit. He is a former member of the Kansas City Council and a former president of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. In 2017, Heeter consulted for Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the four finalists to build the new KCI terminal. Heeter is the embodiment of the city establishment. He has held high-level positions both as a public official and with private sector entities at the heart of plans for the new terminal. If he “fully expected” that costs would increase, it strains credulity to think he was the only one.

Yet days before the 2017 election, Heeter appeared on Ruckus and toasted the “fact-based campaign“ for a new KCI terminal. Heeter then cited the Kansas City Star editorial board’s call to “give the voters the facts they need to give an informed decision.”

The voters were not given the facts in 2017. The Show-Me Institute and others made this very clear at the time. The Star, heralded by Heeter as wanting the facts, themselves misreported the facts in their editorial endorsements. And Heeter himself, who then said that voters had been given all the facts, concedes now that he and others knew the numbers were, in fact, not factual.

The costs associated with a new terminal have been suspect since 2014, when Airport Terminal Advisory Group co-chairman David Fowler said, “Any dollar amount placed on any alternative is almost pretty random.“ It remains “pretty random” four years later. The people of Kansas City are right to be skeptical of their civic and political leaders on this issue; the latter have forfeited their credibility.

The post Were the #NewKCI Construction Cost Numbers Ever Real? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Missouri’s tax credit program is a bloated mess. Whether they are intended to support low-income housing or sports complexes, tax credits are often awarded based on good public relations rather than good policy. Former and present state auditors—Democrats and Republicans alike—have for years argued that tax credits such as the LIHTC have been a bad deal.

Expect localities to rail against even a temporary halt to the LIHTC program, seeking to place blame for their own lack of affordable housing stock on Jefferson City. For example, Flatland—Kansas City Public Television’s digital magazine—recently released a short video on the LIHTC program. In it, Bill Dietrich, the president and CEO of the Downtown Council of Kansas City, Missouri, said (starts at 4:28):

The greatest threat we have right now to being able to add to the affordable housing inventory is the state of Missouri’s ill-conceived policy of no longer allocating for low income housing tax credits.

Really? The greatest threat? The program was fully funded up through the end of 2017. Any current shortage Kansas City has with affordable housing has nothing to do with a lack of state tax credits. In fact, Missouri’s LIHTC program is one of the most generous in the country, according to a previous auditor report (see pages 11 and 19). Most states don’t even have such a tax credit program.

Maybe the actual “greatest threat” to affordable housing in Kansas City is inaction from the Council and city leadership. It is just now, in 2018, addressing the issue. Up to this point, Kansas City leaders, including members of the Downtown Council, appear to have been more interested in subsidizing the construction of luxury housing.  Consider this: in 2017, 91 percent of new apartment buildings in Kansas City were considered luxury. So far in 2018, 100 percent are luxury. 100 percent! (All of St. Louis’ apartment construction in 2017 was luxury, and 81 percent so far in 2018.)

If our municipal goal is to support the construction of affordable housing, we can do better than the LIHTC. But any serious program must start with an actual policy, and it should probably stop subsidizing luxury housing, too.

The post Missouri Tax Credit Program Halted for Now appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

Back in the summer of 2013, the Water Department sought to “produce an educational video focused on the journey Kansas City’s water takes from river, to tap. [sic]” The resulting 1:44 video, embedded above, cost $24,541.28.

By way of comparison, the 25-minute Kansas City Public Television documentary, “Water Rates and Rivers,” which explored the steep increase in water rates and its serious impact on the poorest among us, cost about $40,000. Not only was the KCPT video nearly 15 times longer, but it required much more time and effort to produce.

About the time the contract to produce the Water Department video was signed, Mayor James declined a request by the Missouri Auditor to look into the department due to complaints his office received. Given ever-increasing water rates and this questionable expense, perhaps that decision should be revisited. In the meantime, I invite you to tap your toes to this bit of government-funded education.

The post Marketing Water? appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey Appears on KCPT’s Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey Discusses Blighted Luxury Hotels on KCPT’s Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey discusses KC Streetcar on KCPT’s Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey discusses the KC Streetcar on KCPT’s Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey Discusses KC’s Intercontinental Hotel on KCPT’s Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey Discusses KC Spending on KCPT’s Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey on Ruckus, April 21 appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey on Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey on Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey on Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post Patrick Tuohey on Ruckus appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post VIDEO: Talking Kansas City Border War Economics on KCPT appeared first on Show-Me Institute.

The post VIDEO: Show-Me Institute Chairman Crosby Kemper Talks KC Streetcar on KCPT appeared first on Show-Me Institute.