Subsidies for private business — stadiums or hotels — come out of KC taxpayer pockets | Opinion

Jackson County is embroiled in a debate about downtown-area baseball and the taxes to support it. That is a worthwhile debate but — despite the large sums at stake — stadium subsidies are only part of the problem.

Kansas City throws all sorts of taxpayer money at private corporations. When J.E. Dunn Construction wanted to build a corporate headquarters next to City Hall, it asked for and received a deal in which all the property, sales and earnings taxes generated at the site were returned to the company to offset the cost of construction. It’s not alone. Burns & McDonnell, H&R Block, Commerce Bank, Country Club Bank, Cerner Corp. and others sought and received taxpayer funding to build their corporate headquarters.

So many downtown hotels received subsidies that when Drury Hotels was denied the level of subsidies it requested, its lawyer fired off an angry letter stating they needed taxpayer funds to protect them against there being too many hotels. No kidding. The letter argued that Drury, “believes that the Project is financially risky, particularly given the projected doubling of downtown hotel room inventory over the next twenty-four months.”

The Power & Light District cannot generate enough revenue to meet its debt obligations. But the city negotiated such a bad deal with Cordish Co. that taxpayers are on the hook for it. Mayor Kay Barnes said at the time, “we’re going to look like geniuses.” “Genius” is not the term that comes to mind.

In full disclosure, The Kansas City Star has also used subsidies. In 2005, the newspaper sought and received a 10-year, $12.8 million property tax abatement on the Crossroads printing press now in the footprint of the proposed ballpark. In 2015, The Star asked for and was granted a 15-year extension.

It’s understandable. These enterprises exist to make money for owners and shareholders. If cities are willing to approve every request, they’d be fools not to ask. Sometimes, city leaders beg to give money away: Former Mayor Sly James’ effort to woo Amazon’s HQ2 by writing product reviews garnered national attention. (Incidentally, the city has still not made public its offer to Amazon.)

Under Missouri law, cities control such decisions even though they affect other taxing jurisdictions.

The result is that schools, libraries, counties and the mental health fund are strapped for cash. In 2016, the Mid-Continent Public Library asked Clay, Platte and Jackson county voters to increase their levy because these deals left them unable to serve the community. Voters agreed, effectively picking up the tab for lavish corporate handouts.

Kansas counties do this, too. Jon Stephens, now the head of subsidy-dealing Port KC (and formerly of Cordish), once went to bat for giving Wyandotte County funds to the T-Bones park when owners couldn’t pay their light bill. If fans didn’t care enough to buy tickets, why should taxpayers make up the difference?

Mayor Quinton Lucas once compared downtown baseball to a Maserati: “It’d be cool to have, but I don’t have the money.” Lucas is now being coy about his obvious support for downtown-area baseball, but don’t be fooled. In 2016 he complained that a property tax abatement at Crown Center “doesn’t seem to pass the smell test.” He voted for it the same day.

The cost to the taxpayer adds up. According to Jackson County, the amount of property tax returned to various private projects for 2023 alone is north of $35 million. That doesn’t count sales and income tax, or abatements where property tax levels are frozen. And it doesn’t include instances where private businesses such as the Royals and Chiefs operate on untaxed county-owned land.

If Truman Sports Complex were privately owned and paying its full freight in property taxes, the county would receive about $22 million each year!

Maybe those of us upset by home property assessments should be addressing our concerns not to Jackson County, but to CEOs of all those businesses who don’t pay and the city leaders who permit it — leaving the rest of us to pay more.