I don't know whether the ATA tax is a good idea or not but I am mad at the nine councilmembers who have stuck us with Cauthen. They stuck us with Cauthen because they were mad at Funkhouser and wanted to send him a message. Let's send them a message! City employees and their families and friends represent tens of thousands of votes. We can kill this and anything else the nine want.
Let's start the Blog campaign today! I'm starting my research -- send me your ideas on why this sales tax is something Kansas Citians should vote no on.
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26 comments:
Vote NO on Smoking Ban! In fact, let's all start smoking and blow smoke in Jolly's face!
I'm in...for voting no on both ATA and smoking. This is a great idea. I would normally have voted in favor of both - and I don't smoke or ride the bus, just because the majority wanted it. Now, I'm way more interested in sending the message. The nine members of this council absolutely did not care what WC is doing to our city, their message to us was -we dislike Funkhouser so much that we are willing to hurt our city with corrupt dealings for 3 1/2 more years. That's fine, we'll survive (doubt WC will), but while we're "surviving" lets take the opportunity to take the nine down too!
I want to see ATA audited, too.
I was surprised to learn we're already paying 3/8 cent sales tax for the ATA. That must fund a very large proportion of the cost to run the service. Don't they also get federal subsidies? Why is it so high? Wasn't the prior vote on this to allow a major upgrade of buses? Hasn't that been accomplished?
My cost to own a car; pay local taxes and state license fees, maintenance repair, fuel and parking is probably no higher than that paid by the average worker. My guess is the average ATA rider, like me, is also employed.
Why not restructure the rider fees? Subsidize only those riders that are unable to earn a living wage because of age, health or other justifiable cause that prevents them from being eligible for this welfare program. Let the gainfully employed pay a dollar or two more for their ride. Why didn't Kansas City address this during the 1990's welfare reform?
Think about it. We're giving ATA the equivalent of 1/3 the amount we budget for capital improvements of all our infrastructure! All 6000 lane miles of roads. All bridges, all City buildings, all parks, all storm sewers, etc. etc. One third!!! For bus service???? This does NOT compute!
We have a volunteer PIAC committee that carefully allocates the capital improvements funds where best applied. Why not put ATA allocations under the scrutiny of an oversight committee, too, to see just how lean it they can operate?
Don't pour more money down the ATA rathole until we've done an audit, restructured rider fees and a citizen oversight committee is instituted.
Vote NO on the ATA Tax!!!
I believe this 3/8 tax extends the current 3/8 tax that will expire next year.
only about a 1/4 of your sales tax goes to roads. the rest is water issues, building maintenance and BOND PAYMENTS
I will vote no on this issue due to the fact I have to drive somewhere to get on the bus. So there is no savings for me, since I have to have a car to drive half way to work to get on the bus. And because I am mad at what the 9 did to me as a KCMO taxpayer and employee.
Don't punish the poor to get to Cauthen and the nine. Think of something else.
Maybe letter writing campaigns. Call out Kathy Jolly in the Fallin Star for extending the contract and mention the mismanagement stuff from PO audit it'll freak her out Only three letters and she'll be scared. Promise
It's hard to get people generally to vote no on any tax in this town, but at some point, the rising burden will reach a critical level.
I will vote no because this government cannot be trusted with anything.
More proof some people are positively stupid.
Actually, voting yes on the smoking issue is more of an affront to the council because of their disregard to the petition process.
With respect to the ATA tax, I've considered voting no mostly because of how the council has treated the light rail issue. A yes vote on this issue would send a signal to the council (led by Ed Ford) that it's ok to disregard voters. I'm my mind a no vote sends a signal that the wishes of the voters who wanted light rail should not be disregarded.
But before you idiots go opposing something, understand this: the state gives the city the authority to impose a dedicated transit tax. Those funds and that taxing authority are not available for anything else, like sewers.
I don't think anybody is getting rich riding the bus. A no vote on the ATA tax would put a hurting on a lot of people who depend on transit for their livelihood.
I know you idiots are angry. But at least understand the issues before you react. Otherwise, your impulsive behaviour is no different than that of the 9 who gave Cauthen a contract extension.
On a side note, I hope not all city hallers are as moronic.
Off topic, TTTKC, but wanted all to see this post:
"Did Wayne Cauthen Lie on his Resume?:"
at http://www.gonemild.com/
Dan @ gonemild makes some very good points. Maybe we should review the resume Cauthen submitted to our City.
Ed Ford loves the ATA. He was a commissioner. Ask his office why the majority of the funds come from Kansas City residents but the City Council has no control over the ATA day to day operations.
Since the proposed budget contains zero provision for new police officers perhaps I'll vote no on everything from now on... unless promises are kept and officers (20 new ones) are hired each year.
DKC,
I believe Cordish got the new police officers in the Entertainment District to protect their investment. Barnes and Cauthen helped their developer friend to bilk the taxpayers on that one in many ways above and beyond the obvious TIF dollars.
Twenty police offices' training, salaries and benefits; equipment, etc, etc. @ say $120,000 per year per officer comes to $2,400,000.
Taking 20 police officers out of targeted neighborhoods really needing police protection... truly priceless!
How do we, the average taxpaying resident get a place at the trough to eat from it and not be the ones slopping the wealthy hogs with our dollars?
How much is the TIF revenue deficit now, Kay Barnes? Over $300,000,000? Three hundred million sure would go a long way to correct the City's "structural imbalance" in the 2008-09 budget. With your experience is feeding hogs maybe the voters SHOULD send you to Washington to get us some of those PORK BARREL Federal Dollars!!!
No, that wouldn't work, St. Joe and "Punkin" Patch would get all the money. Never mind, I'll not be voting for Kay Waldo Cronkite Barnes for Congress. Never voted for her, never will.
2:49 - Thanks for calling us idiots - that was a great argument. I think I'll go ahead and vote against both ballots anyway. It always amazes me that those who think they are intellectually superior also believe that they can change your mind by calling you an idiot.
As for the smoking issue - Cathy Jolly wants you to vote for it because Glorioso and Pat Gray have pulled her little puppet strings. Please don't get all wound up in her pathetic "shame on you" position. She doesn't give a rat's &*(% whether anyone smokes in a restaurant. Goodness knows she spends so much quality time at home with her child that she doesn't have time to work. Email her sometime, all you get is a kickback email that tells how she can't access her email at work (LIE). She's just never in City Hall.
As for the bus tax - I drive a car so I don't really care. That may sound insensitive, but hey, I've become very insensitive since those in the African American community (who is supposed to be concerned about the poor & the urban core) came down to City Hall to trash our Mayor and his wife, but don't seem to care that the same City Manager they were supporting lied and made corrupt deals on the recent RFP audit. That community only cares about who is putting money in their own personal pocket. They don't care if their community has a bus to ride.
And you're right - I am angry - so I think I will use my vote to share that anger because all the letters and emails in the world won't change a thing - but my vote will. It will eventually change who is on the council because these clowns need to go (I am of course speaking only to the nasty nine).
This is not the way to move the city forward.
Let's have a debate about the ATA tax. Let's not encourage political action based on anger or to get back at the Council. It's detrimental to democracy.
A vote against the tax is directed at the many workers who depend on this service. As you travel to city hall each day in your car please look at the bus stops along the way. Teens going to school, parents making an extremely time consuming trek to the sitter's and then to work, clerical staff who can not afford to park downtown, elderly who can no longer afford to own a car. Yes, there are the lost souls. I do not know their ultimate destination. Perhaps some wash up in the city hall bureaucracy?
Before you carry out this campaign, take the bus to work the rest of this week. This is below basic transportation. Do not pull this lifeline so cavalierly.
Toadstool - there is nothing cavalier about this stance - this is the only thing that I feel like I have left to fight with. They have left me nothing. They absolutely refuse to look at Cauthen for what he is and has done to this city. They ignore everything and then want to say "vote for this because it's the right thing to do." Well, guess what, they don't care about the right thing and I am frustrated to death by their "cavalier" attitude. Again, I am going to use everything at my disposal to fight back. I am sick of the people who are doing NOTHING for the urban core coming to City Hall to fight for a man who has done virtually nothing for them. They were allowed to say hateful, vile things and NO ONE said publicly - "this isn't right!!!!"
Maybe it's wrong to vote against this tax out of anger and frustration, tell me how else to get their attention and I'll do it. But in the meantime, they better work fast to make amends otherwise when I get to the ballot in April, my friends and I will vote NO!
The irony of this thread is that voting no on transit would hurt the very same people Funkhouser is trying to help.
Are we really willing to throw the baby out with the bath-water?
Vote no on the ATA tax. You need not worry that buses will go away, they'll just have to cut elsewhere -- and they will.
whats a shame is that we have city employee qualified for food stamps while the city manager reaps in the money with a 10% increase in his wages plus his hiddened pension i would think the council would be more concern with the employees that qualifieds for welfare and working for the city. maybe the grateful 9 will help with wages instead of having there strings pulledd. further more i wont vote for any of the council that decide to fun for mayor
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well, how about signing the funk-ee recall petition? I hear it hit city hall today.
BTW who the heck would be as petty as this? .....
"As for the bus tax - I drive a car so I don't really care. That may sound insensitive, but hey, I've become very insensitive since those in the African American community (who is supposed to be concerned about the poor & the urban core) came down to City Hall to trash our Mayor and his wife, but don't seem to care that the same City Manager they were supporting lied and made corrupt deals on the recent RFP audit. That community only cares about who is putting money in their own personal pocket. They don't care if their community has a bus to ride."
.... your stupidity and self loathing are showing. As a resident of Kansas City I support ALL of my fellow citizens. Even the one who wrote the above entry.
Toadstool - clearly you don't support me since you call me "stupid & self-loathing," so don't flatter yourself with your humanitarianism, and please don't use those words and think for one minute that you are better than I. I am neither stupid nor self-loathing, I stand by the fact that a person can certainly use their vote as a tool of protest and I intend to use it as such. There will be buses flowing through the city with or without the vote, I am quite confident. Maybe Cauthen will have to work harder at the budget. Maybe people will pay more attention to the deplorable conditions that surround City Hall and the budget. If more of the public paid attention and were in contact with their council person (as I am), they would be more informed. We are an uninformed City - by choice and lack of any good newspaper to print what is really going on in City Hall. And yes, I'm angry and I'm going to stay that way where City services are concerned until we see some change in leadership.
BTW Toadstool - how does a recall petition for a man who's been in office only a few months help our city? He stood up to our ridiculous city manager - so he's better in my book than at least 9 people on the council.
I say recall Funkhouser. We don't need his divisive presence in the city.
Putting the bus system further down the totem pole because you do not like a certain race is loathsome.
There is no other way to state it.
I am glad that you are only blowing off steam in a sterile environment. Very few would actually go door to door or stand in front of the local grocery store to pass out literature stating this "case"
As for the recall effort currently under way. You are right, it will not help the current situation regarding public dollars. We allowed ourselves to be over burdened with frivolous taxes and tax write offs that the needed bus tax revenue now looks like an easy target. After reading the recall petition I can not support it because it supports Cauthen, and that I will never do even if it means getting rid of dead weight like the mayor and wife.
Crap, city council is being reduced to KCMSD status.
http://thekansascitypost.com/
The Light Rail Citizen Task Force....
building on your reasons to defeat the ATA 3/8 cent sales tax.
Could it be the Council of Nine doesn't like citizen task forces? Remember how they drew the line in the sand, early on, to prevent the mayor from appointing a "citizen task force" for studying TIF? They didn't think citizens were as smart as they are.
Their campaign promises must have been made in secret to the big money developers.
VOTE NO on ATA tax!
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