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| BY GREG WALTERS |
Mrs. Breitenbach is replacing Ms. Jayne Loulos. Jayne served as Treasurer for the organization in its first campaign which was held on August 2, 2022.
In that election “Not the Time for this Tax” scored impressive victories by defeating three property tax increases proposed by the City of Raytown, Missouri.
“I told the members of the club that I would serve as Treasurer for the campaign for the August 2nd Election”, said Jayne.
Jayne continued, “I have business opportunities that will be taking up my time into next year”, but plan to remain active in the organization as time permits”.
Alderman Greg Walters, speaking on behalf of the members of “Not the Time for this Tax”, expressed his appreciation of Jayne’s work as Treasurer during the campaign.
David vs. Goliath
The Missouri Ethics Commission has released the 30 Day After Reports for the
August 2nd Raytown tax elections.
This political contest was truly a David vs. Goliath type of campaign. The group opposing the three property taxes, “Not the Time for this Tax”, was outspent by a margin of over two to one with a grand total of expenditures coming to $3,744.69.
The group supporting the three property tax increases, “Raytown Forward”, had expenditures topping out at $8,997.19.
Raytown Forward also undoubtedly benefited from $20,000 spent by the City of Raytown to “educate voters” before the election.
One of the larger dollar amounts spent by Raytown Forward was on an Election Night Watch Party that was held at Crane Brewery. The total bill for the festivities came to $723.19.
One member of “Not the Time for this Tax” said, “We knew we would be outspent when the campaign started. So we decided our time would be best spent on putting what one of our members called “sweat equity” into the campaign.” . . . “in other words, “we wore out a lot of shoe leather taking our campaign directly to the voters”.
The campaign was not without its share of drama. An individual who supported the three tax increases exposed the name and address of one of members of Not the Time for this Tax with a note urging members on a local Facebook Page to visit with his target to “explain” the election to them. The Raytown Police were contacted and a report was taken.
To the Facebook Page's credit, the offending message and all related comments were removed from the page. The Facebook Page also posted a notice stating they did not support any post that promotes causing harm to another.
Campaign workers for “Not the Time for this Tax” also reported being stalked while they were distributing literature in Raytown. Pictures of the campaign workers were then posted on the same Facebook Page.
20 comments:
I am not sure who called today or what side they are on, but was surprised to be asked the following questions:
1.) Do you support the city of Raytown bond question on November 8th for the streets?
2.) Do you support the city of Raytown bond question on November 8th for the storm water?
3.) Do you support Mayor Mike M McDonough for re-election in April?
4.) Do you support your Alderman for re-election in April?
I should have told them "YES" on all four questions, but I was honest and said "NO"!
They thanked me, but before I hung up I gave them an ear full of why I was a "NO" and more of why after 40 years of friendship I no longer support my friend Mike McDonough.
Well said about Alderman Myers.
I don't know what is worse his refusal to answer questions or the fact he thinks we have unlimited financial resources.
Is there any new people considering running for Mayor next April?
Just like the 3 taxes failed three years ago and again three failed last month these are likely to fail.
After all we can’t keep a financial director to save our lives. There have been almost 10 directors and dept heads resign since the state audit was announced. Half have been in the finance dept.
I just watched the last meeting, they announced they illegally passed a tax issue! So now there will only be 2 extra taxes instead of 3. But if they rushed through illegal taxes can we trust the other two are okay?
Ryan Myers
Please let us know all other 4th class cities in MO with as many department heads as we have.
We have only had 4 of the 6 leave in disgrace or questionable circumstances the others moved to a better opportunity.
I wonder why they need all the extra money since the reassessments are coming out. I heard the increase is 25% on vehicles, trailers, and other property. I thought that’s what the city said too. So they are already going to get more of my hard earned money.
Hey, quit picking on boy wonder! At least he got a nice sidewalk built on 59th where he owns a couple properties. Or maybe he had nothing to do with it. But curious coinkydink, anyway.
wants something done in Raytown - call the news station.
Apparently no-one that works at city hall drives in Raytown
??? Why does the Missouri's Good Neighbor Law not apply to Raytown????
wheres the accountability?
https://www.kmbc.com/article/raytown-missouri-abandoned-home-67th-street/41108980
RAYTOWN, Mo. —
Neighbors needing help is the focus of a continuing KMBC 9 News investigation about abandoned properties on both sides of the state line.
The latest property to highlight is in Raytown, off East 67th Street.
If the mower on the property has done any work in the yard recently, it's hard to see. "It needs some help," said Dave Cain, who lives close to the home.
He called KMBC 9 News saying he is looking for a solution after staring at boards on the windows here for more than a year.
"My opinion is that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and I'm squeaking," he said.
Not even two hours after KMBC emailed Raytown city leaders about concerns at the property, a yellow sign showed up in the front yard after a Raytown inspector cited the property for an overgrown yard. An inspector also cited the property owner for trash violations. The owner has five days to correct weeds and tall grass and 10 days to remove junk, trash, and debris, according to a city spokeswoman.
KMBC 9 Investigates also spoke with the homeowner. She said the property is tied up in a court battle but promised to start work on the property this month. KMBC promised a follow-up.
Looking at the home for more than a year, neighbors said more could have been done to keep the property in better shape.
In 2019, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed a law to give neighbors legal protection to clean up abandoned properties, but that law doesn't apply to the home since it's in Raytown. Missouri's Good Neighbor Law allows neighbors in Kansas City, Independence, or St. Louis, to go onto an abandoned property to help if it's in disrepair.
Cain said that he hopes state legislators might consider areas like Raytown, too.
"It would help," he said.
He is also hoping for a more permanent solution here soon.
If we have enough money to spend on all these “free” concerts we should be able to have enough to fix the roads on the way to the concert.
I know that nobody likes a math nerd, but... When talking about large amounts of money- like tax dollars- it's pretty important that the amounts are clearly stated. If you are talking about 24 million dollars, you can write it as $24 million, 24 million dollars or $24,000,000. Throughout the article about taxation there are references to "$24,000,000 million dollars." If the dollar sign is present, then the word "dollars" is redundant. As for the numerical representation of the amount; 24,000,000 = 24 million. To the author, if the goal is to stir up indignation by getting as many references to the millions of dollars as possible, you have succeeded, but at the cost of accuracy.
Under the Bits and Pieces heading, this portion caught my eye,
"One of those increases, which would have doubled the tax levy rate on Raytown property owners, was defeated by a landslide of 1805 YES to 3210 NO.
Political observers have pointed out the lopsided defeat indicates that voters in Raytown have lost faith in their political leaders."
Really? Those "political observers" should stay on topic. The results of voting no on a tax increase does not "indicate" anything about "faith in political leaders." What the vote DID indicate is that the voters of Raytown do not support that tax increase.
It may be true that people have lost faith in their political leaders, but using a failed attempt at a tax increase as an indicator of faith, is illogical at best. Let's keep it real.
I wonder what dirty tricks the yes side will do this time?
Didn’t the last state audit show millions unaccounted for from the taxes in the TIF? What about we get those?
What if the police started pulling over the years old temp tags that haven’t paid sales tax and licensed the cars? No instead they want us seniors on limited income to pay more!
The concerts in the green space are sponsored by businesses and individuals, NOT TAX DOLLARS.
NOT TAX DOLLARS
NOT TAX DOLLARS
"The results of voting no on a tax increase does not "indicate" anything about "faith in political leaders." What the vote DID indicate is that the voters of Raytown do not support that tax increase."
Strictly YOUR opinion also - that one could go either way. Voted "no" because I didn't support the tax increase because I have "no faith in political leaders." Raytown political leaders. There are examples to cite and they are significant. There are some "fissures" to repair in City Hall first, imo.
September 10, 2022 at 12:39 AM
Tax money is not used for the free concerts.
Are you new to town? Welcome to Raytown!
If the politicians really listened to the voters they would’ve heard a loud NO the last election. So they may say they listen but they clearly didn’t.
I think they should go after grants like grand view has and has gotten more than 30 million. But instead they want to tax us seniors out of our houses. Our fixed income keeps getting skinnier.
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