KCMO Economic development taskforce

[KCPowercat]

Funk has set a new committee that will recommend a policy for future tax breaks in KCMO

Who is the chairman you ask?  Bill Haw?  Johnson County resident?  Defender of Kemper Arena?  One who tried to defeat Sprint Center till the very end?  This can be real, can it?

I'm all for new policies on tax breaks but can we have Kansas City MO residents deciding those policies?  I know Haw is a long time business owner in the west bottoms but really, this is the best chairman we could find?

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/159115.html


edit:  Edited title to make more sense.

[mean]

Yeah, that OneKC crap is just a show to make JoCo think we care about their opinions!

[KCPowercat]

Well the OneKC is a KCADC initiative and I fully support having a board with the KCADC that represents all parts of the metro.

The board in question is put together to create and shape economic development policies for KCMO specifically.  Could you not see a conflict of interest with the chairman of this policy shaping board being a non-resident of KCMO?  Furthermore being a resident of a county that has had no qualms about offering incentives to get companies to hop state lines.  This man fully opposed many of the new development in downtown KCMO to primarily help his own pocketbook which was tied to the west bottoms and Kemper Arena. 

Just doesn't seem to be the most qualified person to chair a board tasked with setting tax incentive policies for KCMO.  I'm willing to listen to reasons to why he is one of the most qualified candidates...please don't include the phrase "well I googled his name".  Thanks.

[GRID]

I didn't think the EDC had anything to do with how KCMO deals with tax breaks.  I also don't think it has much to do with the KCADC.

I understand where you are coming from though .

[KCPowercat]

This is the committee set up by the mayor to decide the future of tax breaks in KCMO.  Their purpose for being organized is to recommend a tax incentive policy for KCMO.  Please correct me if I'm wrong but that's my impression from everything I've read as to why Funk has put this group together.


"A citizens panel met for the first time Wednesday to begin work on a policy that will guide economic development and developer tax incentives in Kansas City."


Ignore my first message, it's full of "titles" that are confusing the subject.

[GRID]

If it's not the EDC and something in city hall set up by Funkhouser, I am not sure how to even comment on that.

I seriously wonder what the residents of KCMO have done to their city though.

I also like how funk put one northlander on the planning commision (used to have four), which pretty much does nothing but approve northland projects, or at least they used to...

[KCPowercat]

It's not the EDC, it's a citizen's committee set up to recommend the future policy of tax breaks for KCMO.  The story explains it pretty well.

[mean]

I don't give a damn where the guy lives, as long as he has good ideas and can help us develop reasonable economic development guidelines. Which, maybe he is a schmuck and his ideas suck, frankly I don't know. I'm just getting tired of people whining just to hear their own voice every time Funkhouser does something. The guy asks his wife for her advice, he's a pansy incapable of leading the city. He blinks too many times or breathes too loud, my god the city is going to crumble! Should have expected it, but still...bitch about the EDC appointees when they jack something up and you have a legitimate complaint, and I will stand behind you and pump my fist and say, "Yeah, Funk jacked it up good!" Until then there's precious little point in getting worked up about it unless you know something extremely damning about the EDC appointee, or you just really hate the idea of someone from JoCo having input in KCMO's economic development future, which, personally, I don't.

[KCPowercat]

Yeah I'm really FIRED UP about it.

Actually I just see it as a conflict of interest...especially when I've witnessed Haw's recent history....it almost appears that he was put in the chairman's role because of his opposition to the arena.  Seems very odd to have someone not a KCMO resident chairing a committee to set KCMO policy. 

I don't so much care the guy is from JoCo as I care he's NOT from KCMO.  This isn't a regional thinktank, it's KCMO policy.  My other issue with him is he's been nothing but a stick in the mud with a "all development tax breaks are bad" attitude.

I'm excited for some of the things Funk has promised, it just seems early on he's stumbling pretty hard....I can't wait to get rid of those metal plates.  yeeehaw.

[GRID]

I don't care that he's from JoCo.  I just now learned he was.  I just never have cared for his ideas on how KC should develop that's all.

He was probably chosen by funk because he has always pushed the "regular people" thing and funk is all over that.

Who knows, he might be just fine, but just like Funk back in the day, he rubbed me the wrong way when KC was on the verge of turning into Buffalo.  A dead, has been.

We don't need anything new.  Period.  It should be our slogan.  What next?  Glazer as city manager?

[KCPowercat]

Haw has always been worried about one thing from what I can tell...maximizing his one investment in the west bottoms.  While I'm fine with a businessman maximizing investments, that's not quite who I want recommending policy.  I guess I'm just a Funk hater though.

[KCPowercat]

come on, you can do better than that.  Nobody stating anything close to that.  Your better than that mean.

[mean]

Local individuals maximizing investments is wrong. Instead, we should give tax money to corporations so they can maximize their investments and ship the profits out of state.

[mean]

Whatever. I just shouldn't read this crap. Ironic that it should come from the two guys who most often accuse people of having "pessimistic" and "typical KC" attitudes.

Pot, meet kettle.

[Pastense]

Many KCMO leadership organizations, ad hoc committees and other influential boards have members and even chairs who live in Johnson County, but deserve representation due to business interests and investments. However, I am confused about Haw's claim that he hasn't benefited from public subsidies. Didn't the city build a parking garage west of the Livestock Exchange? It may have been touted as a "Kemper" garage, but its day-to-day use is for Haw's tenants. I'd be happy to be corrected on this matter.

[knucklehead]

Haw is also in his 80s. I hope he has the energy to lead this thing. People that age also tend to be set in their ways and very opinionated. Not exactly what you are looking for people skills wise (since you need to build a concensus).

I haven't been impressed with what Haw and National farms have done in the west bottoms. I would give him a C plus on that. He appears to lack the confidence to actually get much done.

Funk thinks his 1 percent victory over Al Brooks is a huge mandate to turn KC into the new St. Joe or Topeka. Naming a Joco resident to chair this board is perfectly consistent with that approach. Our suburban interest daily newspaper isn't going to complain.

If the people of KC want to run up the white flag on economic develoment, that is their right. The people get the government they deserve.

The people apparently want an amatuer  with bad people skills and a huge ego who is a cronic negative whiner. Well, they got what they voted for. No one who was paying attention should be surprised. Funk's negative traits were well known prior to the election. 

I read that some speculate that Funk's devisive attack on the old Parks board was retailiation for them not adopting all of Funk's recommendations in his audits. Gee, what people skills. People disagree with you on policy so you call them names. Funk apparently can't accept the fact that some people don't understand how brillent he is. Ego out of control. 

[DaveKCMO]

Funk thinks his 1 percent victory over Al Brooks is a huge mandate to turn KC into the new St. Joe or Topeka. Naming a Joco resident to chair this board is perfectly consistent with that approach. Our suburban interest daily newspaper isn't going to complain.

If the people of KC want to run up the white flag on economic develoment, that is their right. The people get the government they deserve.

The people apparently want an amatuer  with bad people skills and a huge ego who is a cronic negative whiner. Well, they got what they voted for. No one who was paying attention should be surprised. Funk's negative traits were well known prior to the election. 

I read that some speculate that Funk's devisive attack on the old Parks board was retailiation for them not adopting all of Funk's recommendations in his audits. Gee, what people skills. People disagree with you on policy so you call them names. Funk apparently can't accept the fact that some people don't understand how brillent he is. Ego out of control. 

you should attend a town hall meeting and share your views with the man directly. i'm sure he's been sitting on that parks department grudge for a decade waiting to exact his revenge; you should totally call him on it.

[GRID]

I seriously don't get why many of you are simply ignoring what is going on here.  What exactly do you see in funkhouser that puts him so high up in your opinion?  Is it because he won't drive a new car?  He doesn't like northland growth?

So far he has ripped apart the parks board, wasted 1000's on the whole car lease deal, put together a ridiculous economic development taskforce, appointed a new planning commission with biased representation of the city, has stated he will only do transit in KC "regionally" potentially delaying any chance of light rail in KCMO for a decade or more, has threatened cordish's plans to bring in a W and is not in favor of a convention hotel.  And the way he presents himself is not "modest", but unprofessional and it's only a matter of time before he's on monologs of Letterman and Leno.

Did I miss anything?  I'm sure I did...

[DaveKCMO]

I seriously don't get why many of you are simply ignoring what is going on here.  What exactly do you see in funkhouser that puts him so high up in your opinion?  Is it because he won't drive a new car?  He doesn't like northland growth?

So far he has ripped apart the parks board, wasted 1000's on the whole car lease deal, put together a ridiculous economic development taskforce, appointed a new planning commission with biased representation of the city, has stated he will only do transit in KC "regionally" potentially delaying any chance of light rail in KCMO a decade or more, has threatened cordish's plans to bring in a W and is not in favor of a convention hotel.  And the way he presents himself is not "modest", but unprofessional and it's only a matter of time before he's on monologs of Letterman and Leno.

Did I miss anything?  I'm sure I did...

i like underdogs and despise the status quo, that's my reasoning. nothing you listed bothers me one bit except for the light rail issue, but the guy he placed in charge of the issue appears to disagree.

not to mention he is a known political novice and it's only been six fucking weeks. i personally don't get why people are so surprised by the gaffes and jabs. my big picture view is still intact... he is the best candidate of all who applied.

[cdschofield]

Other than Andrew Taylor, the CEO of Enterprise Rent a Car, (at least he's a resident of Missouri and has business interests in KC as well) I don't think the Mayor could have picked a more anti-TIF biased chairman of the task force for KC eco-dev policy. All Bill Haw, who probably thinks of Emporia and Cottonwood Falls more as home than KC, has done is buy up blighted property in the bottoms and continued to make sure it has remained blighted. If he had pulled off some miraculous West Bottoms revitalization without tax incentives then I would say he was the man. To brag how he has not used any tax incentives himself but also never criticized or even lobbied for tax incentive projects in the bottoms is disingenuous. Like the parking garage and $9.6 million of incentives for Butler.

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansa ... cus12.html

Does anyone remember that Anschutz, of AEG, got Haw's hog farm closed down in Colorado? Maybe Funk isn't the only one with an ax to grind?