The Labor-Management Council of Greater Kansas City urges you to vote Nov. 2. Our Board of Directors has unanimously endorsed the following positions on the ballot:
•A No vote on Missouri Proposition A
•A Yes vote on Missouri Amendment 3
•A Yes vote on the Kansas City, Mo. Public Safety Sales Tax renewal (Questions 1 & 2)
The board opposes Proposition A because of the extensive harm it could do to needed public services in Kansas City, Mo. Executive Director Bob Jacobi also points out that Proposition A is unneeded, uneconomical and unfair. Here’s why:
•Proposition A is unneeded. Kansas City voters already have the power of initiative petition to reconsider the earnings tax at any time voters choose to. As most voters are aware, it is not that difficult to get city issues on the ballot. For other cities, Missouri’s Hancock amendment requires that a public vote be held for any new tax to be imposed. Voters, not politicians, already hold the fate of any new earnings taxes in their hands.
•Proposition A is uneconomical. Even if Kansas City voters renew the tax, the five year sunset means that 40 percent of the city’s general revenue is essentially unavailable or much more expensive to be leveraged for general obligation bonds. Particularly when interest rates are low, taxpayers save money by having capital improvements paid for via bonds rather than pay as you go. Proposition A would make government more expensive, not less, in Kansas City and St. Louis.
Replacement of the earnings tax would require dramatic increases in sales and property taxes and/or significant cuts in essential services, making Kansas City less competitive.
•Proposition A is unfair. Why should Kansas City voters tell Joplin voters whether or not they should have an earnings tax? Why should Joplin voters tell Kansas Citians when they have to vote on the tax? Proposition A takes away local control of taxation, which is unfair to all Missouri voters.
Whatever one thinks of earnings taxes or the fiscal policies of any particular city, Proposition A is the wrong way to address those concerns. Voters already have the power to regulate earnings taxes in their own hands, taxpayers don’t need government to become more expensive and voters don’t need the entire state controlling their city finances.
A “No” vote on Proposition A is the needed, economical and fair thing to do.
Missouri Amendment 3 would, if passed, bar property transfer taxes that could make development in Missouri uncompetitive with other states. The board recommends a Yes vote to preclude such taxes.
Kansas City Questions 1 & 2 would renew the quarter-cent sales tax for capital improvements that will enhance law enforcement and emergency services and authorize bonds to begin those projects. The projects would continue the upgrade of critical police and emergency infrastructure that began with the current sales tax, which expires next year.
The Board also approved an issues agenda for the 2011 federal and state legislative sessions:
Federal
•Support Federal funding for study of proposed commuter rail network.
Missouri
•The LMC supports reasonable and effective economic development incentives. While the LMC supports ensuring that tax credits and other incentives are cost effective, we want to preserve those tax credits crucial to economic development such as the historic tax credit, tax increment financing, the tax credit for the Three Trails project and similar programs. The LMC also supports enhancing the Quality Jobs program and including the impact of construction jobs created by the program. The LMC also supports enhanced education and training tax credits, as long as those programs include existing construction apprenticeship and journeyman training programs.
•The LMC supports Gov. Nixon’s task for on the automotive industry in Missouri, and encourages the Task Force also consider the General Motors Fairfax plant in its plans as Missouri workers and businesses are involved with that plant as well.
•The LMC supports restoration of Medicaid funding (Missouri) to its level before the cuts of 2005.
•The LMC supports restoration of Missouri programs that foster economic development and provide critical services such as Medicaid, education, the arts, childcare subsidies for working parents and others.
•The LMC supports state funding for a comprehensive transportation plan.
•The LMC supports Prevailing Wage in its present form.
•The LMC opposes TABOR (taxpayer bill of rights).
•The LMC endorses retention of the Missouri Plan for judicial selection and the similar policy that exists in Kansas.
•The LMC opposes the “Missouri Civil Rights Initiative” that would ban affirmative action programs and is attempting to gather signatures to get on the ballot.
•The LMC opposes elimination of the Kansas City, Mo. city earnings tax until an alternative is in place.
•The LMC supports development of a statutory framework for public employee collective bargaining in Missouri to reduce uncertainty for workers and for public employers.
Kansas
•The LMC supports reasonable and effective economic development incentives.
•The LMC supports funding for the comprehensive transportation plan enacted in 2010.
•The LMC opposes immigration reform proposals that would put the burden of I-9 verification on contractors for subcontractors. Verification responsibility should fall only on the direct employer of those workers.
For more information please contact the LMC.
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