Official arena opposition: Coalition Against Arena Taxes

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:32 pm

30 members...watch out arena the just-rite rubber stamp company and one local branch of enterprise is out to get you.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 4:37 pm

Sandra McFadden Weaver is in this group? She better not get a SNIFF of a re-election bid.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 5:35 pm

Keitzman is going off on these people because now I guess Enterprise (STL company) is leading a charge with an ad company to spend $250,000 to try and stop this.

Of course being Keitzman, and them being from STL, he's calling everybody at their corp. offices

sethyg · Post by **sethyg** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 5:57 pm

Go KK!

macnw · Post by **macnw** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:47 pm

Fyi,
I believe the guy who runs Justrite Rubber has been in court numerous times to stop development of various projects in the PL district. If I remember, this guy was a real pain in the ass for Durwood. I know he is only one guy, but he must have a good lawyer, he is always in court bitching about something.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:03 pm

I have sworn him off for all my rubber stamp needs

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:10 pm

let enterprise know your feelings on their corporate practices:

http://enterprise.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ ... er/ask.php

KCDevin · Post by **KCDevin** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:15 pm

Like that one guy said, We go to other cities (including STL) and have to pay THEIR taxes to build things in THEIR cities, and now its THEIR turn here.
Besides, you have to be stupid to complain about taxes that will only be here for THREE YEARS.

Hehe, i think it's funny that they are running their operations from the West Bottoms, a PERFECT place for pessimists.

Downtowner · Post by **Downtowner** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:14 pm

Hmmm, $250,000 would offset a lot of the taxes Enterprise is so worried about...they could cover about 60,000 car rentals with that. They must have money to burn to have that kind of cash to put towards stopping a tax they don't even have to pay. I left an email on their feedback site. I'm glad Kietzman is going off on them. The last comment was right....if a KC company tried to block a StL project, they would go crazy. We should do the same.

scooterj · Post by **scooterj** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:16 pm

KCPowercat wrote:let enterprise know your feelings on their corporate practices

Done.

Xpatriate · Post by **Xpatriate** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:45 pm

Same here.

And my tone was rather, well...

ignatius · Post by **ignatius** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 9:50 pm

Here's an odd twist... Enterprise says that more than 50% of their business is local. If they oppose the arena and advancement of downtown, the locals will simply abondoned them. Poor tactics.

My company uses Enterprise for all travels and we travel constantly (hundreds every week). Perhaps we should switch to someone else.

Not a wise move Enterprise.

Email them and tell them you'll use another car rental company unless they switch tactics.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 10:19 pm

They got one from me. I told them I never rent cars so theatening doesn't do much good but it's funny how the don't care about the $3/day fees charged right now at KCI to build their new rental car facility.

Also said if 50% of their customers are local, they are pissing off 1/2 their customer base because most residents are for this arena.

tat2kc · Post by **tat2kc** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:33 am

i just sent a letter also. I counted up the rentals i had for last year, it was about 165 days with Enterprise. They've lost a bit of business in the future.

Beltonhawk · Post by **Beltonhawk** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:11 am

From the Star today, posted by request:

Arena foes are taxing on the ears

By JOE POSNANSKI

Columnist

Man, I'm dizzy. Feel like I've just ridden the Tilt-A-Whirl all afternoon. I've been spun by the mayor of Kansas City and spun again by the â€œCoalition Against Arena Taxes.â€

Post by **staubio** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:00 pm

In a way, we are lucky the West Bottoms has been such a flop so far. The only people that really stand to lose from pulling the legs out from under Kemper are the owners of hidious gravel parking lots. The Golden Ox is its own attraction. Other than that, the arena isn't feeding much.

I'm for anything that makes squatting on urban land less attractive. Kill the surface lot empire!

Beltonhawk · Post by **Beltonhawk** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:36 pm

Here's what I got back from Enterprise....the exact same as everyone else??

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
Coalition Against Arena Taxes

Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (NR_DIANNA) - 07/20/2004 01:06 PM We appreciate and respect your views on this very important topic. Kansas City is a place our company has called home for 32 years. That being said please understand we are very much in favor of the revitalization of downtown Kansas City. We have and will continue to run our businesses on one simple premise. We believe if we take care of our customers and our employees our profit will take care of itself. This has been a critical component of our mission statement since the earliest days of our company. Some people believe we are opposed to the Arena Tax because of self-interest. This is inaccurate as the only self-interest we have is to protect our customers from having to pay a tax that has widely been sold as a 'tourist tax'. Over 60% of our rentals in KCMO are from local Kansas City residents. This is a pass through tax that will be passed along to the customer, insurance company, dealership, etc. We asked the city repeatedly to make an exception for local Kansas City residents and we were told no. This is the main reason we have publicly announced our opposition to Question 1.

We are only one member of a broad based coalition against arena taxes. Other members of this coalition include elected officials, leading business people, small business owners, the overwhelming majority of rental car companies, and a host of other citizens. This coalition has a variety of views on having an arena in downtown Kansas City. At Enterprise we do not profess to know whether or not an arena is best for KC. We do believe; however, that an arena is a community wide benefit and as a result should be funded by all members of the community or with private funds. We truly do appreciate your business and we respect your opinions and views on this topic. We are hopeful you will keep an open mind with our position as well.

KCN · Post by **KCN** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:44 pm

Yeah that seems to be the same response.

ignatius · Post by **ignatius** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:53 pm

I didn't get a response yet. Reply and ask if they have spent $250K in other cities to oppose this tax. There are many cities that have this. If Enterprise did not spend this much to oppose it, they are singling this out. They also fail to point out that they are the primary funder even though others are on the coalition.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:09 pm

http://www.stoptaxonkc.org

Pick out the inacurracies.

Address:
P.O. Box 8485
Kansas City, MO 64114

Phone:
(816) 679-2817

Email:
info@stoptaxonkc.org