Kansas City keeps earnings tax, but misguided foes like Rex Sinquefield likely won’t quit

For the second time in five years, Kansas City voters have delivered a clear message that they want to keep the 1 percent earnings tax.

The impressive 77 percent approval on Tuesday to extend the tax through 2021 almost matched the 78 percent “yes” vote from the 2011 election.

But the battle over the future of a tax expected to provide $240 million this year for public safety and other services likely will continue in coming months.

No one bowed to King Rex

Rex Sinquefield is the earnings-tax-hating, St. Louis area multimillionaire who spent nearly $11 million to garner public support for a 2010 law that forces Kansas Citians to vote every five years on renewing the tax.

Sinquefield’s minions at the Show-Me Institute, which he founded, along with others in the just-say-no camp in this city tried to kill the tax in the last few months, to no avail.

Few people expect Sinquefield to abandon the fight. This time, he spent a reported $2 million in unsuccessful campaigns against the tax in Kansas City and St. Louis, which renewed it by a 72-28 margin.

At this point, it’s safe — but discouraging — to expect that Sinquefield will be back with yet another campaign to eliminate the tax in 2021.

Mayor James’ fighting words

Late Tuesday night, as James left a victory party at Union Station, the mayor properly lambasted Sinquefield.

“We do not need outside interference, we do not need your guidance, we certainly don’t need your negativity,” James said. “This city has a very clear understanding of where we want to go. We’re headed there and the best thing that I would ask for is, we aren’t asking you to get on the train, but we do ask you to please get out of the way.”

James also noted, “Voters are sophisticated and intelligent enough about this tax to understand what it does for this city....”

That’s an excellent point — but also a challenge that City Hall needs to continue living up to. City officials must work hard to provide residents with strong basic services, bolster citizen satisfaction scores, make decisions based on reliable data and be even more efficient in using public safety funds. A great place to start would be reducing runaway firefighter overtime that’s costing taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

Keep an eye on Jefferson City

Rebuffed by the cities’ voters, Sinquefield could dump even more cash into the campaigns of Missouri lawmakers and try to get them to do his dirty work for him.

Earlier this year, Republican Sens. Kurt Schaefer of Columbia and Will Kraus of Lee’s Summit were part of a hearing on a bill that would kill the earnings tax within a few years. James and local civic leaders were forced to trek to Jefferson City and fend off that misguided measure.

Schaefer’s campaign for attorney general has received at least $750,000 from Sinquefield, and Kraus’ bid for secretary of state has received at least $100,000 from the St. Louis area businessman.

On Wednesday came some good news from Jefferson City: Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard said he didn’t plan to pursue bills this year to kill the tax. Yet other attempts still could come in the future.

Here’s another option for the General Assembly. Change the 2010 state law and make it possible for the earnings tax vote to occur once every, say, 10 to 15 years. That would give Kansas Citians the ability to get rid of it but wouldn’t make elections occur at such a ridiculously short interval.

Stop the drain on KC businesses

It was encouraging to see the Kansas City business community largely finance a successful campaign that would never have been needed except for Sinquefield’s interference.

The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City made the firm point that the earnings tax does not keep businesses out of the city. In reality, the tax provides money the city requires to provide strong basic services that companies expect in a first-class community.

It’s apparent that Sinquefield has plenty of money to waste on trying to kill the earnings tax. If he wants to earn some supporters in Kansas City, he could cut a $1 million check to reimburse local businesses for the money they had to waste fighting his bad idea in 2016. (Fine, that’s not likely to happen.)

Congratulations to voters who ignored Sinquefield’s sycophants and retained the earnings tax. It remains a solid way to build a better future for Kansas City.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Kansas City keeps earnings tax, but misguided foes like Rex Sinquefield likely won’t quit."