Ethics complaint filed over mailers opposing e-tax renewal in Kansas City

An ethics complaint has been filed against Citizens for Responsible Government over anti-tax mailers that the group sent out prior to Kansas City’s earnings tax election.

Steve Glorioso, who helped run the successful campaign to renew the earnings tax, sent the complaint to the Missouri Ethics Commission on Monday.

It alleges that Citizens for Responsible Government, a Kansas City political group, violated state law by failing to disclose expenses for two citywide mailers that it sent out before the April 5 election, and failed to list a contribution that would have paid for the mailings.

Group spokesman Dan Coffey said he has not yet been billed for the mailers, so there was nothing yet to disclose.

Glorioso said that he didn’t know of any printer that would do the mailings on credit and that the group still should have disclosed that activity.

Glorioso noted that the group criticizes City Hall for lack of transparency in its spending but that it has not been transparent as required by state law with its own political activity.

The earnings tax renewal passed by more than a 3-1 ratio last week.

Although Citizens for Responsible Government didn’t specifically tell people to vote against renewal, one mailer urged people to vote “to take back our city,” and to vote to “cut taxes on working people” and “end tax breaks for wealthy CEOs and rich developers.”

The group’s financial disclosure eight days before the April 5 election listed $1,718.91 cash on hand but did not list any spending for mailers.

On April 8, after the election, Citizens for Responsible Government did file an updated disclosure listing a $21,000 contribution from United for Missouri, a nonprofit group that says on its website that it strives to mobilize citizens for limited government.

This story was originally published April 11, 2016 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Ethics complaint filed over mailers opposing e-tax renewal in Kansas City."