RAYTOWN'S LEADING NEWS SOURCE
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Rice Tremonti
Barb Schalpia sells Abbigail Larkworthy some cookies at the Annual Rice
Tremonti Craft Sale. The event, which was held this past Saturday and Sunday
drew large crowds. The cold weather did not keep people away from the krafters
or the delicious soup and desserts offered by Rice Tremonti.
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Halloween is over. But this Jack O Lantern has a new job the winter.
Guarding the back yard.
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| BY GREG WALTERS |
Last week I promised a comparison of the property tax levied by cities located in Jackson County, Missouri. The following link shows a comparison of municipal property tax rates in Jackson County. The numbers pretty much speak for themselves.
Suffice to say that if the property tax rates in Jackson
County were a bicycle race, Raytown would be in the top five.
Jackson County Property Tax Rate Chart: TAX CHART
Jackson County Property Tax Rate Chart: TAX CHART
Other Revenue Sources
A regular reader asked what other tax revenue sources the city had. It is a good question – and – one I am familiar with. You don’t spend 27 years on the City Council without learning a thing or two. Following is an explanation of other revenue resources the city routinely collects from taxpayers.
A regular reader asked what other tax revenue sources the city had. It is a good question – and – one I am familiar with. You don’t spend 27 years on the City Council without learning a thing or two. Following is an explanation of other revenue resources the city routinely collects from taxpayers.
FRANCHISE TAX: The franchise tax is the 8% tax we pay on
electricity and natural gas. It is a pass through tax. Technically, it is owed
by the utility company to the city in which it operates. However, the utility,
in turn, passes the fee back to the end user.
Inflation increases the amount of the Franchise Tax you pay
each month. In other words, when the electric bill goes up – so does the tax
you pay on it.
To illustrate how much you pay in municipal taxes on your
utility I have taken my KCP&L Electric Bill as an example. The following shows
how much sales tax you would pay on a $102.34 electric bill:
$102.34 BASE COST OF ELECTRIC BILL
$10.17 FRANCHISE
TAX PAID BY CONSUMER
$2.54 SALES
TAX PAID BY CONSUMER*
*Raytown charges sales tax on the end product and on the Franchise Tax.
In effect you are paying a tax on a tax!
The same formula applies to your Natural Gas bill, your Telephone
Bill (both mobile and land lines), and yes, also on the wireless service for
your computer.
PET ANIMAL FEE: The City of Raytown has a two tiered tax for pets in
Raytown. A fee of $5.00 is paid for an animal that has been spayed or neutered.
A fee of $10 for animal is charged for animals that are not spayed or neutered.
The tax is applied to all warm blooded domestic animals. Warm blooded animals
can carry rabies. Cold blooded animals, snakes and other reptiles do not. The tax is charged to pet owners on annual basis.
If their animal takes off wandering, the fee is assessed (along with a penalty)
when the owner and pet is reunited.
OCCUPATION / LIQUOR / RESTAURANT/ ETC., ETC., ETC.: If you
own a restaurant, serve food at an event, serve or sell alcoholic beverages,
the city will have you pay a license fee, own a business, Thinking of putting a
new roof on your house or a new water heater, remodel your home, all of these
are subject license and fees.
There are many more licenses and fees, too numerous to put
here. As I remember, the fee schedule presented to the Board of Aldermen when it was last updated covered
nearly two pages of line items showing the fee and license requirements.
The following organizations (and individuals) are not required
to obtain a business license to operate. Governmental entities like library,
public schools, churches, and, strange as it may sound, doctors and lawyers.
Paul’s Rant! BY PAUL LIVIUS
Have you ever wondered why there is not a Franchise Tax on your water
bill? I know there isn’t because I checked mine. I asked Greg why this was so.
Back in the 1980’s Greg did some research on the different
taxes routinely paid by taxpayers for utility services. He was surprised to
learn that if you lived in the Raytown Water Company service area, you paid a
franchise tax. If your water came from Jackson County Public Water Supply District
No. 2, you did not pay the Franchise Tax.
He found out the Public Water Supply District was tax
exempt. Therefore, their clients did not pay the 8% fee.
Greg felt it was wrong for half of Raytown to have to pay
the tax, while the other half did not. So he sponsored language to eliminate
the franchise fee on water. The Board agreed and the Franchise Tax was eliminated.
I asked him about the sales tax on water. He told me that
he later learned the sales tax was not collected by the Public Water District
No. 2, but is still collected by the Raytown Water Company.
So if any of you members on the BOA are reading this, do
the right thing. Eliminate the discriminatory sales tax on people who live in
the Raytown Water Company area. It is not right that some people should have to
pay a tax in a city while the other half do not.
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Comments
People have to pay all these taxes. It does not matter who gets the larger cut of the tax dollar pie. The end result is the same. There is only so deep you can dig into the other guy's pocket to pay for everything on the wish list of those who tax us.
Acting like it does not count because because the school district creates the lion's share of property tax debt is nonsense. Besides that, check the law. Because Raytown is a fourth class city it is very near the cap the state puts on city's of the fourth class on property tax.
I believe we would not significantly reduce crime by doubling the police budget.
Conversely, I don't believe crime would double if the police department budget was cut in half.
As we have seen, many of the criminals drift in from surrounding areas. Not too much to keep that from happening.
I think the BOA should commission a study on behalf of the City of Raytown taxpayers to define our actual policing needs. What we have now is something that has grown and grown to include many upper level manager types that may or may not be necessary.
Let do some thinking about that.
Sorry, slow joke day.
I agree with you that Jim Lynch needs to step down. However, a public committee to investigate the TIF is a waste of time, energy and money. I can tell you what happened:
1. There were Mayors and Aldermen who didn't know sit from sic 'em. They relied on lawyers that were incompetent and didn't understand the contract from Walmart.
2. There was a school district that wanted a piece of the money for computers they didn't need and couldn't afford. They talked the mayor, lawyers and aldermen into including and giving the school district $20 million dollars from the TIF that the city has to pay back with no contribution from the schools.
3. The mayor and aldermen agreed to make up any short-fall in TIF payments if Walmart didn't sell as much as they thought they would.
4. No one in the city did their due diligence to make sure Walmart could hit the sales performances that had been projected. (Note - the sales projections were over-inflated)
Spending money to investigate this fiasco now would be a waste.
1.) The former city administrator should have been bonded as well in investigation should tell what other bonds/insurance is on him.
2.) Elected officials should have been bonded too.
3.) Need to check with the State Attorney and Audit on if the money to the school district was justified as allowed by law. If no, there is the big windfall for the city.
There are ways this type of investigation can be done with little to no cost to the city.
It starts with the current Board of Alderman asking the state and federal agencies to investigate the wrong doings of those former boards, (Board of Alderman 2005 - 2011 and school district 2005-2009) as well as the TIF board.
The investigation should not only include those board members and decisions they made, but also into their family members as many of them had a direct link back to the school district, which sure brings up a lot of questions.
Also any one who received a payment from the bond proceeds was the expenditure justified, fair market, allowable and was anyone double dipping (being paid by two entities for same service).
This would be the right time to request an investigation as the Attorney General is seeking a higher office and doing this investigation could making him advance in his political journey or bring question to his ties to dark money.
The state auditor is also up for election and would want to do her best audit ever and being she is not from the party of the Governor and other elected officials the Governor should want to help the Board of Alderman by ordering the audit as it would help his fellow party leadership in the attempt to gain the auditors office as well as drive the Attorney General to the US Senate.
Just think Board of Alderman Raytown could decide the US Senate and State Auditor race by an state investigation an investigation that is in your hands.
I recommend you meet with the Governor and Attorney General soon with a preset date that you hold a press conference that those two elected officials are going to stand with the citizens of Raytown and get to the truth or help hide and protect what could be criminal activity.
1) Living in Raytown was unaffordable with high property taxes (70% going to the dysfunctional school district)!
2) High gas and electric rates topped off with 12.7% Raytown City taxes!
3) Extremely cold winters and hot, humid summers causing item #2 (above) to impact my budget.
4) Health issues caused by the extremely cold winters were very painful!
People didn't seem to understand why I left Raytown, but I just couldn't afford to stay there as well as suffer with the pain in my fingers which were blue from Raynauds.
Andy Whiteman
8:59 You rock and should be mayor we need someone who will work to get answers.
You can thank Sue Frank for that mell of a hess. It's been too long running and I am glad this Board has the backbone to step up and take action against Lynch.
It's time to hire a professional PD person so that politics do not play a role in the leadership of the Police Dept such as it has in the past several years under Lynch.
And I agree with an audit of the 350 TIF and those accountable should be brought forward to answer for their actions. Look at Sue Frank, Curt Wenson and Dan Estes for why such a lop sided deal was given to Walmart so much that it crushed the city's ability to provide basic services and protection.
Good lord - how many witch hunts do you want going at any one time? You want to investigate the city administrator, and the board of aldermen, and all their families, and anyone who received TIF bond payments.
You want to expose the attorney general's dark money, aid the state auditor, and decide the US Senator race.
That’s a very ambitious agenda. When do you find time to do anything else?
1. What do you want the Board of Aldermen to do about the school taxes? They are high because the people voted for the tax increases. The BOA has NOTHING to do with the schools.
2. What do you want the Board of Aldermen to do about the cost of gas and electric? Those rates are set by the utilities, not the BOA.
3. What do you want the Board of Aldermen to do about the extremely cold winters and hot, humid summers? You'll have to contact Gary Lezak, not the BOA.
4. What do you want the Board of Aldermen to do about your health issues? You need "Healthcare.gov" not the BOA.
Thank you for the demonstration of not knowing how a true investigation works.
What is next you don't want the government to checking into how Russia interfered with the 2016 election.
What do you have to loose are you on the magic list of those who double dipped on money from the TIF funds or a relative of someone who got something in exchange for a vote.
Raytown needs answers! Raytown needs restitution!
Maybe you like less officers and a criminal kingdom, but we need to celebrate free thinkers with a plan like 8:59.
Why don't you use the screen name "Negative Nancy".
When you write you never either want to get to the truth and hold folks responsible or you make comments about things others never wrote.
My comments were about property taxes as well as climatic conditions making living in Raytown unaffordable and totally miserable. They were not about the BOA! The BOA could stop double taxation and lower the franchise tax. I spoke during Public Comments but a previous BOA ignored me.
Andy Whiteman
and that is also happening with this piece of writing which I am reading now.
maybe that is the bigger story. you know about how they save money.
Keep up the good work.
Nice post and probably saved me 4 hours.
Thank you for sharing.
The one thing you left out was if Lynch doesn't like the change he just needs to retire.
It is only fair to share it so we are all on the same page and without it for all we know she might have been on the city for the wasteful management, which would be the truth wouldn't.
Because, after all, the "Mayor" and aldermen were "elected".
Evasive? Unresponsive? Voters, you elected these people and you ALSO elected the marshal. How many of you have spoken directly to Lynch? How often has this "Chief" reached out to the voters of his own accord to educate, inform, provide reassurance and justify his decisions and recent behavior?
This isn't the Wizard of Oz and this marshal shouldn't be hiding behind a figurative curtain until he's called up before the council.
Regular, open dialog from this marshal might have either reduced the level of generalized antipathy these past few months. It also might subdue any number of eruptions that are bound to pop up in the future.
Yep, it's a tough crowd right in Raytown now, "Chief". We can only imagine some of the comments you would review.
But that's what leaders do.
You simply cannot be "too busy", inconvenienced or find any other justification in not doing so.
Transparency.
Start a blog. Do something. We predict that this would eventually become quite the positive for you.
Hustle all that knowledge and experience right on out there.
And most importantly, get some more ideas going. First person. YOUR original content, not any work throughs via Mr. Hudspeth or anyone else in *OUR* police department.
Tick tock.
This will always be OUR police department. You may feel differently because you've been around for so many years, but that simply isn't the case. And as sometimes you have been the ONLY candidate, you were merely selected by the voters to run the department and be compensated for doing so for a specified number of days.
http://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/raytown-aldermen-propose-greater-oversight-of-police-department
Also, I'm pretty sure the millions she claims she spent for the rebuild mostly came from insurance proceeds. No matter, I'm glad she made that decision.
Crickets !!!
Know what your talking about
It turns out Raytown has taxes on utilities set at 8%. The taxes are based on consumption. That means those who use more, pay more. It also means that when electric rates, natural gas rates, telephone rates, and internet rates goes up, so does the tax we pay.
We also pay a sales tax on top of those already high rates. It pushes the real rate up to about 10%!
Raytown's problem is not a shortage of tax money. It is a habit of over-spending and agreeing to give some departments at city hall anything they want. At least until this year.
Fix the accountability problem at city hall. Establish that we are a democracy and not a kingdom and that the elected representatives are those charge with making the final decision and you will solve most of your problems in Raytown.
This is why I pay close attention to this blog. I haven't reviewed any of this, but if these numbers are correct, why in the world would I vote for a property tax increase?
Instead, I err on the side of fiscal responsibility, OVERSIGHT and common sense. We have to get to work and pay attention to these people in city hall and develop (for the most part) a new slate of candidates. Raise our standards and get these goofballs out once and for all. And in the meantime, we'll toughen up and take our medicine.
#1 the mayor
#2 the chief
Although compassion isn't my strong suit, I must admit that I felt a little embarrassed for him.
The video can be reviewed at http://www.raytown.mo.us/index.asp?SEC=689FEB0F-D44D-49EA-8E6C-E54E1642EBDB&Type=B_BASIC
Select "Board of Alderman".
The November 7th meeting.
Click on "Public Comments".
Lynch was the first to speak.
Whoever wrote that post about the yellling must have attended another meeting.
Rich
People---
That alderman yelled at people at the TOWN HALL meeting, not the regular board of aldermen meeting.
10:57 pm
I was at the town hall too.
A lady in the audience even said to Teeman "Why are you yelling at us?"
Watch the tape.