OFFICIAL - Arena construction

[KCPowercat]

I'm going to guess that Kemper isn't going to be putting any of his money into either.

The ten year comment was made about the baseball stadium. The arena is a completely different issue.

[JerseyGuy]

Mayor's tournament bid to include new arena

By MATT CAMPBELL The Kansas City Star


Mayor Kay Barnes said today that she will be prepared by mid-May to make a bid for future Big 12 men's basketball tournaments that includes a downtown arena.

“I anticipate that prior to that time that we'll be able to talk publicly about a financial package,â€

[KCPowercat]

Mid-may...notice no YEAR was given

[GRID]

Anybody want to take a bet that H&R Block will step up once again to help make this project happen?

[KCPowercat]

I would bet she's "so excited" because H&R put their name on the thing and paid the final amount to get it moving.

[tat2kc]

I wonder how much the changes in MODESA had to do with the delay in the funding side of this issue. Also, remember back when H&R Block announced their plans for downtown, and the entertainment district was announced. People wondered if this may have been a prelude to the arena announcement. The city council just recently gave its approval for the development to go forward, with demolition to begin this summer. These developments, and the city's quick movement regarding constuction and such may have been a requirement in order to secure the necessary financing. If you really think about it, simply moving Block downtown really is not a realistic anchor for a major entertainment district, even factoring in the convention center.

It'll be interesting to see how this financing package will fall out.

[KCPowercat]

I think the change in MODESA had everything to do with the delay

[tat2kc]

I wonder if the majority of Kansas City would support financing both an arena and a downtown ballpark at the same time? Personally, I would with out hesitaton, if given the right design. (remember, the arena says no general tax increase, not necessarily a targeted tax increase!)

[KC_JAYHAWK]

Mayor Kay Barnes said today that she will be prepared by mid-May to make a bid for future Big 12 men's basketball tournaments that includes a downtown arena.

Insert laughter here "__________ ____________". I'll believe it when I see it.

[KCPowercat]

it doesn't hurt to be positive Jayhawk.

[Czar]

The rumor mill has it that the arena will be annouced within two weeks after the GO Bond ($250MM) April 6 vote. There may be a public vote on arena...stay tuned boys and girls

[KCPowercat]

doesn't there have to be a public vote for any kind of tax increase....say an increase to the rental car tax..?

[trailerkid]

We don't need to go through the agony of waiting for a public vote. And if it was defeated, I would probably break down in tears...

[LyRiCaL GanGsTa]

The rumor mill has it that the arena will be annouced within two weeks after the GO Bond ($250MM) April 6 vote. There may be a public vote on arena...stay tuned boys and girls

He's Brian Fellows!

[aknowledgeableperson]

Why do you think Kemper came out in favor of a stadium instead of an arena? Because it was his family that contributed around $5,000,000 for the construction of Kemper Arena. That is why the official name is R. Crosby Kemper Memorial Arena. Named after his father or grandfather. If a new arena is built downtown then the old arena loses it status in the area.
And, as stated previously, there are two reasons Barnes has not made an announcement on a new downtown arena. One, no money to construct. And two, the operation of the arena will not provide enough funds to pay for the operating costs and the debt service.

[dangerboy]

MODESA was a big setback, as the original plan was counting on the that money. Then they wanted to use revenue from the entertianment district, put the tax incentives and cost of parking garages turned to be so high that there wouldn't be any revenue left over for the arena.

Rental car fees and other "user fees" can be raised without a vote, since they aren't considered taxes in the traditional sense.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Car rental fees are not really a fee. For the state of Missouri a "fee" is used to support the operation. Such as the user fee at Kemper and the Convention Center, builder's fees to support the Code operations, fees for birth and death certificates to pay for the cost of the records, and so on.
It would be a car rental tax and two steps would have to be taken. One, the City cannot have any tax it desires - it must have approval from the state in order to have the capacity to tax that activity. And two, because of the Hancock admendment the taxpayers would have approve the tax. Much like what happened in the recent past on the increase of the Hotel/Motel tax.

[KCPowercat]

I don't see a problem passing a car rental tax....it's never been a problem in the past.

Also tack on a new arena user fee....let the people using the arena help pay for it no matter where they are coming from.

[aknowledgeableperson]

I don't see a problem passing a car rental tax....it's never been a problem in the past.

Also tack on a new arena user fee....let the people using the arena help pay for it no matter where they are coming from.

However, there would be quite a delay with regards to the time to raise the car rental tax. To have the action completed would be at least to the end of the summer of 2005.
The user fee would only raise $1 mil to $2 mil, depending on the amount. Will need quite a bit more to make a dent in paying for the debt service.

[KCPowercat]

yeah there have to be more than that obviously.

A delay? There really isn't a specific date that has been set for the arena to be done so I would just consider getting the car tax on the ballot part of the procedure.

I'll leave it up to the "experts" to figure it out.