Paul’s Rant BY PAUL LIVIUS
We received the following post
in the blog section of our publication. The post was signed by a group calling
themselves Citizens for Truth in Raytown.
Exactly “who” Citizens for the Truth
in Raytown is not known. But we were able to check the facts of the story and
found all of them to be true and extremely accurate.
The post is reprinted here. We did some fact checking on the document and found it to be an accurate and honest message to the voters of Raytown.
Anyone who
plans to go to the polls next August 7th to vote on the three tax
increase proposals for Raytown should consider this message required reading.
Citizens for the Truth in Raytown
I would like to point out the shell game the
City is playing with the way they define and report the taxes they receive.
First, it is a complete and bold face lie to
state the City has not increased the property tax mil-levy rate. One simply has
to look to the City's 2017-2018 Budget and you see that in 2009 the levy was
.3189, in 2010 the Aldermen arbitrarily decided to increase the levy to .3668
or 15% increase.
That increase basically remained in place until
this year when the Hancock Amendment forced the City into lowering the levy to
.3373 which still amounts to a 10% increase in just the past 8 years.
The shell game comes into play further when you
hear people like the Mayor publically state that the Library receives roughly
the same amount of tax revenue that the City does. Statements like those are
deliberate and only serve to deceive the voter.
You see, the City does not only derive all of
its income from the property tax. The city also receives millions in hidden
taxes we all pay.
Just look at your utility bills some time or
your cell phone bill and you will see franchise fees or taxes which generate almost
4 million a year for the City.
Every homeowner in Raytown must pays these fees
on the natural gas, electricity, internet and entertainment services (i.e., cable television) and telephone service.
Even your cell phone service is taxed.
Here is a little secret most Raytowners are not
aware of. Both your electric and natural gas bills are double taxed.
Check out your last electric or gas bill. You
will see the Sales Tax follows the Franchise Tax. That means the sales tax is
applied against the amount of Franchise Tax you pay! That’s right you are
paying a tax on a tax.
The City is the only entity that is allowed to
collect this tax and the City does nothing to earn it. When you equate this
franchise tax we all must pay in to the mil levy it makes the City’s tax rate
$1.94 which makes them by far the number 2 taxing jurisdiction in Raytown.
Just a brief Google search will show that
Raytown’s franchise taxes are the highest in Jackson county, make no mistake
these are taxes plain and simple. When you then add on the fact that a whopping
12% of every cent of sales tax goes to the City as well, you really start to
see the narrative that is being sold is not close to truthful.
Please join us in sending the message to 10000 East
59th on August 7th that we have had enough of the lies...
Signed the Citizens for the Truth in Raytown
 |
| BY GREG WALTERS |
Raytown Live
Kicks Off
Summer Family
Concert Series
About 100 people showed up to the inaugural
Concert of the Raytown Live Summer Concert Series. The event was held at the
Green Space located near 63rd and Raytown Road. Warm southerly
breezes greeted the concert goers who were treated to a two our hour concert
last Saturday evening.
AnnaLee and The Luck So and So’s performed for
two hours, treating listeners to their renditions of music from the 1940’s and
1950’. AnnaLee provided the vocals, accompanied by a lively mix of horns and
guitars.
The Raytown Live Summer Family Concert Series
has scheduled four more concerts. All the concerts are to be held at the Green
Space located near 63rd Street and Raytown Road. All concerts begin
at 6:00 p.m. and end at 8:00 p.m. The following schedule is planned for the
series.
June 9th . . . . . . Marty and Gary
July 14th . . . . . . The Jerry
Hooper Band
August 11th . . . .To be announced
84 comments:
We need to stop the infighting and come together to create a solution to the city's financial challenges.
At this rate nothing will get done and we'll be in worse shape than we are now.
Only a hundred people at the Raytown Live? You need to learn how to count. At one point, we counted about 250 people there. You must have arrived late and left early.
Here’s the biggest problem in my opinion. People seem to think things cost the same as they did 5,10,15, even 20 years ago, but they do not. So if income only increases minimally and cost increases by a bigger percentage, you have to cut somewhere. Either personnel or services. And employees deserve their wages to be increased to match the cost of living accordingly or employees will seek employment elsewhere.
Checked my light bill, the sales tax is based on the subtotal before the franchise fee is added, so they aren't charging sales tax on the franchise fee. Just because it follows the franchise fee on the tax section doesn't mean the franchise fee is included. To the citizens for the truth in Raytown, can you show where the city isn't in need of more funds for the PD and Roads? Or will we just use the pot holes in the roads as speed bumps to stop speeding so no need for police?
Yeah, everyone wants to complain about the quality of the roads, but then argue against a way to pay for it.
7:21,
The Board of Alderman have already proven that police are now properly staffed.
The issue before was too many chair warmers which was proven by the number of officers on the street when Lynch took office 16 years being the same 16 years later.
This on top of the fact that before the Nov 2017 show down reporting facts from PD to other agencies on the number tickets or should we say lack of in the years the PD were over staffed.
I would say you wanting more money for a department that doesn't need money is justification for voting NO on any of the cities tax issues.
We received a post questioning the count at last Saturday night's concert in the Green Space. Whoever posted the message seemed quite upset that I had estimated the crowd at the concert at 100 people. For what it is worth, my wife and I arrived at the concert about half an hour after it started. The number I came up with was from a quick count of people in the area was 100. I had been visiting with some of our Aldermen at the event and him how many people he thought was in the crowd. He came up with the same number
We stayed until the concert ended . . . in fact, we helped Alderman Karen Black carry some of her stuff back to her car after the event.
Whoever wrote the message seemed to take offense at what he or she thought was a low count. (the blog was unsigned). I can assure them there was no ill intent in the count we arrived at.
Personally, I thought the turnout was good. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. The weather spectacular and I can tell you I look forward to future concerts.
8:34 pm
The person who wrote the post about the attendance level did sign their name.
Regardless of what side you are on with the upcoming tax questions there is a common agreement our instruction (streets) is failing.
Our current administration believes the best way to fix the issue is to through more money at the problem, but refuses to provide any protection for this within any of the ballot questions.
One write warns of the bait and switch, which is an issue that has been a black cloud over not only are city, but this Nation for too long. The issues is a new special tax is created or current tax is increased, but without special verbiage that ensures the current funding from the general fund remains the same those same less than trustworthy elected officials move the same amount from the new tax or tax increase out of general fund money original assigned to that same budget issue.
An additional to this concern with our current administration, we must also look at other solution then to create new taxes and increase others. All of this when the mayor created a special committee to review solutions to our funding decline….wait only to look at tax solutions not any and every solution.
This does just happen when our leadership at city hall is closed minded, but even more so when they have a hidden agenda and in this case to move money from the general fund to the police department. This is even after it was proven the department has been not only over staffed for many years, but every year does less and less to prevent traffic accidents.
One of the greatest impacts to our streets are the increase number of companies providing trash services. On my street alone there are at five every week. We are not alone as cities like Kirksville, MO have done stories on the issue and they are down to one contracted service.
http://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/news/20161109/city-official-says-garbage-trucks-damaging-local-streets
This is not a new solution, but one that was brought up several years ago only to be shot down by Alderman who would prefer to vanbuskirt the taxpayers by supporting corporations over public safety and additional street decay.
Not only would few trash trucks on our street increase the life of our streets and also address the issue of residents not having trash service, which leads to issues for the neighborhood. Don’t forget a cost savings to the taxpayers as a lower cost is negotiated in those communities where the city selects the service and bills the residents on other bills like our sewer billing.
This is just one solution that actually would save the taxpayers money and life of our streets, but those great minded and honest folks elected to represent us only want more of our hard earned money and not reasonable solutions that actually benefit all of us.
10:14 pm
"Regardless of what side you are on with the upcoming tax questions there is a common agreement our instruction (streets) is failing."
You meant to say "infrastructure", correct?
6:12 Did that get you attention to read the piece?
If I have questions about the upcoming tax increases I will go to someone who knows the answers NOT Out of Town Susan or some of her bunch who thinks they know everything. I don't trust them in any way shape of form.
Loved the concert event Saturday night. Mayor McDonough and the group the coordinated it did a great job.
We should have a city-wide trash pickup service. It works well in other cities. Less wear and tear on our streets is good.
One Alderman (van buskirk), not the entire board, compared the pd’s staffing to grand view and called it good. Problem is, grand view pd is grossly understaffed and underpaid according to the market. So much so, that they had to add a public safety sales tax to their ballot last April to fund more police. It pays to do a little research before speaking.
Still have the same number of chair warmers as before. There are less on the streets. And if you think two officers and two supervisors on each shift is proper for a city the size the Raytown, you’re nuts. Sixteen supervisors for twenty-three other slots if all slots are filled, doesn’t sound like a good plan.
Why don't all those in favor of more taxes just write a check each month to the city? Perhaps this will cover the shortfall and everyone will be happy.
Previous City Administrator Tom Cole discussed the one trash hauler idea and I remember a couple of the Alderman being supportive including myself. But a couple things put that idea on the shelf. The announcement of the sale of Flynn’s to WCA and monotoring the transition that Belton and Raymore passed to one hauler. While the service would be a bid type situation you would certainly think WCA would have an edge since they are Raytown based. But absorbing that type of potentially insurgence and pressure on their service and operations while they are in transition takeover mode left most with a wait and possibly regroup after they settled in and we can gage and evaluate their operations.
Both Raymore and Belton went to a single hauler (Jim’s) early this year and that start up debacle was a nightmare and frankly all of the discussion cooled quite a bit. It may be worthy of picking up the discussion and iniative at some point because it does if executed have some upside. 2 bulk item pickup days per year and also curbside recycling, but like somethings just because it looks great on paper doesn’t always mean it will lead to a better and improved operation.
Have a productive week Raytown!
Steve Meyers,
Alderman Ward 4
Great thought on other options that will save money and give us better streets.
However, we still have Alderman that don't understand about public health over profit, which is why Raytown is the smoking capital of the KC Metro.
Not a good title, but really brings something to those "Only In Rayotwn" folks.
The PD has plenty of money. In fact they have so much money they didnt even notice they had a 250K slush fund. They paid money from the savings account for severance packages before rehiring those same people back. They had 164K for unemployment expenses they said was worse case knowing more people had resigned than needed to. Instead of repaying the savings after it was mentioned last meeting now this meeting they are requesting to use it for more workstation updates than there are employees. Further, look at the Tax funds, there's over a million dollars sitting in accounts to spend and that is only growing not declining as one might expect or a cash strapped city.
We were promised a refi of the TIF last year. Then we were told we had to wait for the court stuff to finish, then other excuses. There is still no movement to refi the TIF, which would save a crazy amount of money.
They still have more clerks per resident than many areas, they gave the Prosecutor a raise because his people were having to do the work of clerks after SB5. But if you ask the city they have the same workload. Both can not be true.
The parks wants to get a 3/8 cent sales tax in April. The State wants 20ish cents on a gallon of gas in Nov. That doesnt include the 5-8 other tax increases on the ballot and the city raising all fees and coming up with new ones.
The city has money coming out of every orifice, even though they are wasting everywhere there still more than they are spending.
NO NEW TAXES, at least not until they complete their promises or at least try and reduce expenditures. The mayor had a tax increase committee but not a expenditure reduction committee. they want money worse than a strung out drugged up liberal teenager.
4:17
Utter nonsense. Have you ever looked at the budget? To imply that the City coffers are overflowing with money is an absolute falsehood. I know of no public official who is willing to make such a claim.
7:34 am
No I try to read all the posts. Details do matter.
A well-written piece will get more views.
How in the world did the comment at 4:17 get approval? wow...that's quite an angry rant.
You all are both nuts if you think our levels of police are ok! The Board proved nothing but tightening the city’s belt. They cut in many places and then the police. Chair warmers? Someone has to be the bosses. I’ve seen people of rank out in police cars on wrecks, calls and arrests.
You don’t want a police department or public works you just want to let our city continue to decline and not boost our too low income and budget
4:17, are you insane? Literally none of those are true. Wow
@4:17 pm
The expenditure reduction committee was conducted by the BOA. They reduced expenditures last year. It was all over the news.
Do you think the parks board will refund any portion of the pending sale of super splash slides and equipment to the city? I didn’t think so either
The single trash contract worked for raymore, but benton bitched their roll-out. I think it would work here
I see the Missouri House is expected to approve a 10 cent per gallon gasoline tax increase. If they pass the increase I think it will put the local gasoline tax on the August Ballot in jeopardy of losing votes. I was already leaning against voting for the Raytown tax increase because the Mayor and Board have such a bad reputation of not keeping their promises. If the state approves the ten cent tax my vote will be a definite NO vote on the city council's two cent proposal.
The Gas Tax has specific spending restrictions and can ONLY be utilized for road and related infrastructure purposes. NICE TRY...
And remind me what part of the Board reducing the budget by nearly 3 Million Dollars last year broke any promises. They said they would present a balanced budget and did just exactly that. These taxes are long overdue and if previous Boards would have worried more about their fiduciary responsibility and not re-election desires, Raytown wouldn’t be in the dire situation it is.
I hear Fire is taking over EMS soon. Rumor has it that’s what the closed session was about.
The August tax initiatives are just another example of how inept our City leadership is. You have a community seething over with questions and distrust due to the abomination that is the Walmart TIFF project. You have a Chief of Police who takes his ball and goes home if any form of public accountability is enacted. You have a revolving door of City leadership including, but not limited to 3 City Administrators in the past 15 months and 6 Finance Directors in past 4 years. Even further you have a parttime Finance Director responsible for 11 million dollars a year and two interim Co-City Administrators responsible for oversight of the parttime Finance Director. Our past fulltime City Administrators failed to administer critical responsibilities at every turn, how can we have confidence that parttime Co-Leaders are going to be any more successful. The August ballot issues are a cash grab by the Mayor and Aldermen, who are hoping to capitalize on the recent budget fighting. These politicians plan to use more of the same rhetoric in an effort to get the voter to forget about the reason why the City is in a financial crisis. They will parade the usual preverbal carrots on a string around the town in July and promise you the voter a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot if you support their massive increases. Do yourself a favor; when they come around ask them what happened to all the money generated by the last three increases we approved, ask them how many patrol officers they had in August 2017 vs now, ask them what happened to the 39+ million dollars generated by the crippling TIFF bonds, ask them if there has been any forensic auditing of the City's accounting of these expenditures, ask them what happened to the bond refi that was supposed to save the City over 7 million dollars, and finally ask them if anyone has been held accountable for their actions as it relates to these failures. The Mayor, the Aldermen, the Police Chief and the City Administration are all counting on an uninformed populous at the polls in August and it is our mission to make sure that does not happen. Citizens for Truth in Raytown
I like having the freedom to pick the trash company that I want. One company will cost us money
and the freedom to pick the one you like.
Ummmmmm
Wrong board and Mayor you’re blaming
1:17 are you willing to start pay a special tax for having that freadom
8:30 AM Why is it so hard for individuals like you to understand.
The ballot language doesn't prevent the current funding from being reduced.
It is that simple!!!
Without that language the city will move whatever amount is generated by the gas tax from public works to PD from the general fund money.
Facts are curious creatures. They stand on their own merit. They are not swayed by hysterical statements. They remain the same. Take, for instance, our city's future. To hear some tell it we will be walking on dirt roadways in the future.
Still the facts are not swayed.
It remains that Raytown has one of the highest property taxes in the area already.
It remains that we have one of the highest sales taxes in the area.
It remains that our city council is still drinking the corporate tax giveaway koolaide.
The worst is the horror the city brought on itself with the infamous walmart tif. Check out the city's plan for redeveloping Downtown Raytown. It has a 353 tax abatement program that literally takes in ALL development in Downtown Raytown.
Apparently the mayor and his city council has not learned from past mistakes.
The answer to Raytown's problems is not in raising taxes on our homes, gasoline and internet sales. The answer is more responsible government with leaders who are not afraid to say NO to corporate tax giveaways.
Some of the Aldermen are wanting to restrict public comments to 3 minutes per person. Currently, residents get 5 minutes to speak. Why are Raytown residents being punished for the abuses that were caused by out of state union organizers?? Or the Lees Summit conspiracy theory lady that showed up last year?
Call up your Aldermen and ask them where they stand on this vital American tradition! Ask them why they are punishing your right to speak! Any Alderman that does not support public comments fancies themselves unaccountable to the citizenry. This is not Communist China, not yet anyway.
A little something most people are not aware of. When the BOA began public comments the original time limit was three minutes. No one seems to know for sure, but it seems like it was changed to five minutes when McDonough was elected mayor. I agree with those who say three minutes is adequate to get your messagge across.
@ 6:14
Sorry if listening to the people is such tough work that you feel the need to restrict free speech. This is about a few Aldermen that dislike public comments and have decided to throw their weight around.
Yes, we are paying for the TIF gamble that did not pay off. Get over it. We need to move on
If we have high property taxes, it’s because we give it all to the school district and ignore our city and it’s infrastructure. It costs money so we’ll need to pay for improvements via tax increase.
Citizens for the Truth in Raytown
People are saying that our streets will soon be gravel. They are now gravel so what is the difference?
I will not support ANY new taxes till we have a creditable new board and Mayor. We need a Missouri audit of the present board and mayor.
I thought Vanbuskirt was the King of grandstanding but there may be a new champion amongst our Council. Mims is a serious contender for the title. “I’m Just Sayin”...
Lynch has got to go before I'll vote for any tax increase. Period!!!
Public comments was FIVE minutes from the time I started addressing the BOA. I moved to Raytown in 1999 and started attending sometime after that. I am unaware when and if it has ever been 3 minutes. Three minutes seems short to me but I could squeeze what I had to say into five minutes.
Andy Whiteman
6:14 am
I tend to agree with 3 minutes as well.
Do what I used to do in school for speech class--write out your thoughts and time how long it takes to deliver them. Keep the salient points and trash the fluff.
I don't care when it was 3 minutes or when it was 5 minutes or when it started. I care about the message this sends that the aldermen don't care what the community has to say. During a few meetings a bunch of people came to speak to elected officials and I guess that created too much of a burden on their precious time. Most meetings only have a couple of speakers. I can count them on the fingers of one hand. That's less than 25 minutes. Is the board telling us they are too important to spend an hour of their time PER MONTH to listen to us? The CITY portion of the taxes hasn't been increased in decades. Levy changes because of Hancock is not the same as a voted on tax increase. Everyone keeps saying no increases because we can't trust the aldermen and mayor...well the solution to that is to vote them out; not to cause our town to go broke to spite them. On the gast tax Raytown is already cheaper than surrounding areas. If the state gas tax comes in to play it's going to come into play everywhere and we'll still be cheaper than the surrounding areas. This tax is a no brainer because this one, unlike the property tax, will generate revenue from outside the community. I still think we need the property tax but there are at least reasonable arguments on both sides for that one. Oh and the TIF. Always the TIF. Guess what, there is nothing we can do about that monumental disaster. It's already been done. The only person left on the board that had a hand in that is Aziere. Vote him out. I also see a lot of hypocrisy here. It seems some on BOTH sides of the fence are willing to contradict themselves to support "their side". For example, all the hate on the TIF yet many of you support the Bond issues Myers brought up. For you and me it's the same thing! Yet you praise the idea of bonds. Newsflash.....they are both nothing more than taking out loans we can't pay for and crossing our fingers that things will change before those payments come due. Didn't work with the TIF. Won't work with the bonds. It's been said that Raytown Explained is the hip and new place to get information without all the debate and bias. Personally, I don't care who runs it. I'd like to see how well they manage to actually keep their bias off the page in the coming weeks. Anyone who refuses to check out a potential source for good information without giving it a shot is a willful idiot. Tony J posted a comment about not having sources and the following day sources started to appear on the page. If they listen to criticism and respond with corrections or changes then they are already doing a better job than our BOA! I saw someone mention that our sales tax is one of the highest in the area. We all need to do a better job looking at the big picture. Most of those areas with lower sales tax have special taxes included that actually make the taxes higher. That shopping area in Lees Summit off Colburn is much higher in the end than any place in Raytown. Also, our property taxes are higher because of what we give the schools, not because of what we give the city. I'm really tired of so much bias on both sides that you never get the real story. I hope the new Face book page will give us all the actual data and let us see for ourselfs. Noplace else exists like that for us right now. For every place that says the taxes are good there is a place that says they are bad. For every place that says the police are bad, there is a place that says they are good. I wish we could wipe away all the bull and just get flat answers.
Now if we could just get Aziere and Vanbuskirk to have limits on how long and how many times on one subject they may speak then we will be making progress
Nothing was changed since 2005
McDonough was not in office then Sue was
I too want a single source for trash service. Less expensive and more services. We can all agree on that.
Raytowna Beach Bum
The Citizens for Truth in Raytown neither agree with or endorse the above message. While it is true the School District takes more than they deserve, our City is broke and our infrastructure is crumbling because of mismanagement and poor decisions. Until this stops and City Hall begins to show good judgement all the money in the world won’t fix things. Signs The Citizens for Truth in Raytown
Anybody care to wager why the City hasn’t refinance the TIFF bonds? My money says it’s bacause they are junk and they known it. As soon as August is over win or lose the City will default....
@12:11 pm
The Aldermen should have the ability to listen for 5 minutes. If they cannot do this then retirement should be considered. This is about certain Aldermen that don’t like being challenged and taking criticism. This is a power grab. Our politicians should not be so thin skinned. There is a lot of concern about our City and rightly so. Criticism is part of the job, man up and take it, or get out of the way.
We’ll have to vote people out later. We have a chance to right the ship now. Take action and vote yes!!
Concerned Citizen
I have a hard time taking the facebook page "Raytown Explained" seriously when their posts are not listed with the author's name (much like this blog.) In addition, who is editing their documents? they claim that the documents were provided by the city, but they are not on city letterhead? and there are incorrect words used, which makes me think the documents were retyped, and not well
I think Alderman Steve Meyers should have a limit as to how long and how many he can speak in one meeting.
So you think a company that has a monopoly on the market will keep it it cheap? Only in Lala land.
Just a comment:
Many posts are unreadable do to the manner they are written! I learned basic writing skills in Junior High and High School. How about the use of paragraphs?
May 16, 2018 at 1:10 PM, I liked what you had to say but it was a very difficult read. If I had turned in a composition like that in Junior High, it would have received an "F!"
I don't mean to be critical but if posters would use the skills they learned in Junior High, the posts would be easier to read.
Anony Mouse
10:38am -
I completely agree with you. However, I suggest you clean up your grammar before criticizing others. Case in point -
The post are unreadable due to (not do to)... You could also try using the punctuation you learned in Junior High. (BTW - most of us learned these skills in Elementary School. I'm not sure why you were so far behind.)
I am finding it hard to believe some people are buying the lie the city has not had an increase in property tax income for decades.
When I bought my home I paid $78,000 for the house and property. Today that same house and property is taxed on a value of $105,000. All of the taxing entities, including the city, receive more in taxes from me today than when I bought the house.
This is true for every business and home in Raytown.
Well, almost every property. There are some, like Walmart, Sutherland Lumber, HyVee, and any business property in downtown Raytown who pay much less than years ago. That is because the city gave them tax abatements.
Which, incidentally, raises the amount all those without tax abatements have to pay.
If the city council and mayor were honest about making a change from the mistakes of the past they would do away with the unfair tax abatement districts like they have in downtown Raytown.
I will be voting NO on doubling our property tax. I will not vote to add to my gasoline tax. Only a fool would vote to create what amounts to a 2% increase in sales tax on our internet purchases.
May 16, 2018 at 6:50 AM
NO we shouldn't move on we need to look if any thing criminal happened or if any agreements that were made were actually legal.
If wrong doing was done people need to go to jail and funds repaid.
Yes I talking about the deal with the school district and the representation conflicts they had.
6:17 PM, Agreed, I noticed my typo ("do to" rather than "due to") as I read my post today. It is very difficult for one to see one's own errors when writing something. Yes, I learned these skills in elementary school but their use was emphasized in Junior High and High School where we had to do more writing in specialized English and Language Arts classes.
Anony Mouse
Anonymous 6:34 pm
I agree with you 100% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are wrong about tax abatements. Sutherlands collects an extra one cent sales tax and keeps it until they are reimbursed for initial construction expense. They pay full tax to the city. That is why you pay one percent more when you shop there.
It was nice to hear Denny Wait did the right thing yesterday.
If only a few others including Frank White would do the same.
Hey, 15.00 a month for trash service, I will keep the one I have. I for one do not
want a city sponsored service. On second thought the city doe nothing right anyway.
No. I am not wrong. Sutherland does charge a CID (Community Improvement District) tax on every purchase in their store. The money is supposed to be used by Sutherland to pay for improvements on their property. I do not know who monitors those improvements, but their parking lot is beginning to look as bad as some of our streets!
Sutherland's also receives a property tax abatement on their property as well. That means they pay less than they normally would in property tax.
It is like the property tax abatement HyVee and Walmart gets. It is how the rich stay rich and the poor pay more in taxes.
Call city hall and check it out.
I was at Raytown Live last weekend too. There may have been about 150, at the most, 200 people at the beginning of the concert. But after about half an hour many of them had left. I think 100 is a pretty fair accurate count from the middle of the show until the end of the show.
6:34pm - So let me get this straight. When you moved to Raytown, your house was worth $78,000. Now it's worth $105,000. I have two questions: 1 - how is this a bad thing? and 2 - why is it the city's fault?
That money has to go into a special account and then has to be spent down to do infrastructure such as parking lots and such.
And the city didn’t raise your taxes. The amount you paid was more because the house is worth more. They didn’t change the percentage. And it’s minimal in amount the city gets due to being worth more. But the city is bad blah blah blah. There’s a conspiracy against the citizens.
The value of the home is not the issue. The simple truth is we are paying more in property tax than before because the property tax is based on the value of our homes. This exposes the lie tax proponents love to repeat ---- blah, blah, blah, Raytown has not raised taxes in decades!
It is not the city's fault we are paying more taxes. The fault can be found with inflation. Most Raytown City taxes are inflation proof.
The Franchise Tax on Electricity and Natural Gas is 8%. If your electric bill goes up, so does the amount of tax you pay. Same can be said about all sales taxes.
It is especially true on property taxes. If you purchase a $30,000 or $40,000 car, your tax is going to be higher than someone who buys a less expensive car. Same is true for the house you live in.
But I think you know and understand all of this. You must be one of those folks who votes for a tax increase no matter how much it hurts individuals on fixed incomes.
You should really be more compassionate.
TO ---- Anonymous said... I am very perplexed by a question regarding the $20,000.00 that was given to the Truman Habitat organization that helps low income families fix up their property. When asked what they did with the money given them last year the answer was nothing. Really we the tax payers gave them our money when our city is in financial straights.. Now the city wants us to vote for a tax increase, I don't think so. I say cut off the money to Truman Hartland and use it when it is needed that would be in our city. This make me irate I don't know how anyone else feels but I think we deserve some answers. May 18, 2018 at 5:47 PM They did nothing with it because they didn't receive any. Listen to the video of the meeting and the whole conversation.
As was stated in the BOA meeting, if the money isn’t spent for the program we don’t actually pay it. There was $20k allotted for this program but none was actually used so the city didn’t pay a dime. This is because the parameters for qualifying weren’t met by any of the applicants. Mainly because roof repairs are the most common and they are more expensive than the max dollar amount allowed for any given project.
So if the money is not spent, it rolls over into next year’s budget. Seems simple
May 16 - 8:30pm
"The Citizens for Truth in Raytown" A Missouri Audit I say will say it all.
A few continue blaming the present BOA (a few new ones) continue showing the people the problems they are facing from the past 18 years or more and yet the mayor and the Raytown Unleash group keep throwing them under the bus. When they don't like what they (new BOA members)say, they either get kicked off committee's or shut down, called names and have even been defamed on social media.
What I'm tired of is they wo't say anything, but they know the truth.
8:21am
I love that you said Mims grandstanding. What you don't like hearing the truth? or is it because of who it's coming from? I've followed this woman for many years and watch her make change, bring funding home for veterans, homeless and people with mental health issues.
I get angry because she continues to let people like yourself, beat up on her and she keeps working and not say a word. I even listened to one of the meetings and heard a board member flat out accused her of "some people are trying to further her political career." I even saw this on the Raytown Unleash (Out of Town Susan) say it, so we know the small crowd of people. Did anyone try to learn about her, know her credentials or welcome her into Raytown, NOPE, just beat the hell out of her.
This is embarrassing, especially to a trail blazer who came here to work. You know what I learned, she retired (3) times, and she still works in helping those in need to get their disability. WOW
Ms. Mims if you read this, please continue to work for the rest of us that need your knowledge and service.
1:10pm May 16
Thank you. A Missouri Audit will say alot. Especially from 2000 to present.
I agree we definitely need a Missouri Audit. Didn't one of our Board of Alderman state such?
So that's why the Raytown Unleash group started trashing someone.
Let's tell the truth. One person showed up at a board meeting wanting the public comments changed, then a alderman took it up. This lil group wanted to tell the board who can and cannot speak. So this subject went to a committee and now the same little people don't like the recommendations from the committee, trying to please and few unhappy group of control freaks.
A hand full of people complain about any and everything and yet don't like the outcome because its not what they want. The other 29 thousand residence aren't being punished,they are tired of Raytown being a spectacle in the media and on social media.
Who and what business would want to come here. Yes, we have some issues, but I watch other areas work on theirs, why can't we? ijs
In fact checking before out current mayor the public comments part of the open meetings were 3 minutes and it was changed when McDonough came on board and changed it to 5 minutes.
I did ask my alderman and she said, "I don't care how long anyone speaks, that's their right,she takes notes so that she can make the best sound decision for her constituents." Didn't know her before, but I like her. Now beat her up on this.
Now a hand full of people are on facebook, sending e-mails to continue to complain. Get over yourselves.
6:07 pm
So you are saying it’s ok to cut public comments from 5 to 3 minutes? How undemocratic.
@ 6:15 pm Sounds like a reasonable lady who supports Democracy.
Post a Comment