Death & Taxes: Perspectives on the Sales-Tax-Free District

Benjamin Franklin once said ‘In this world, there is nothing certain except death and taxes.’ While this quip is generally referenced for its comic undertones, it bears pointed advice for the city headlines this morning where the dichotomy of the rehabilatory efforts and destructive forces working within this metropolis could not be any more clear.

The Jackson Couny Legislature joined the Kansas City Council in endorsing a resolution to create a sales-tax-free district in central KC in what is known as the Black Heritage District comprised of Troost to Prospect and 9th to 29th Street. The resolutions may help push the state legislature over the edge of votes it needed, but didn’t quite get last year in the General Assembly. Community leaders have been working for years to see this legislation adopted and see it as necessary to bolster economic development in the urban core.

While siginifcant questions/issues surrounding the purposal abound, there appears to be consensus among elected officials and community leaders alike that this is a step in the right direction.

Yet, at the same time, one of the leading stories this morning chronicles the cold blooded murder of a store employee on Troost gunned down, seeminly senselessly, as he and another associate were locking up the O’Reily Auto Parts store at 63rd and Troost. Police, less than two blocks away heard the gunshots and were not able to locate the gunman who fled on foot. This is not the first store employee on Troost to be shot on the clock this summer. A gunman shot a Walgreens asst. manager on Troost near 47th St. as he was taking out the trash around 9am.

The move to alleviate taxes without siginficantly bolstering the efforts to alleviate the plaguing levels of crime in this and other districts will not succeed in its objective to boost economic development. At best, it will give some tax relief to a few hard working business’, such as Mr. Gates while simultaneously lining the pockets of a handful of less than admirable characters. Unfortunately, there are those who work on these types of initiatives, with the song of bettering their community, but whose real intentions are nothing more than lining their own pockets. You will no them by their fruits, need I say more.

Simply alleviating a sales tax will not bring the necessary economic development, it must be accompanied by effective crime prevention strategies. Data, such as that provided by the KCUMA project, indicates that the necessary market factors of density, spending cash, median incomes, etc are available for the markets to grow. It is the recurrent high instince of crime that has and will keep markets at bay.

Members of the General Assembly should not pass this plan without detailed additions addressing the increase of security, KCPD or otherwise, in these districts. The simple inclusion of a clause requiring the KCPD detail four to six ‘beat shifts’ where officers, on foot, bike, or horse patrol the area would go far to bringing the necessary perception of security as well as deterred instance of crime in the district. The creation of a CID (Community Improvement District) specific to this plan could also be another means of seeing this come to pass.

Without such a plan, we will simply, for a time, have death without taxes.