TKC MUST READ!!! KANSAS CITY TAX FIGHTERS DEMAND CITY COUNCIL ACCOUNTABILITY AMID DOWNTOWN CONVENTION HOTEL DEADLINE!!!

This EPIC screed from tax fighters touts another reason that locals want to discontinue the current Downtown Kansas City Convention Hotel deal . . .

KANSAS CITY CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT CITE LEGAL PRECEDENT TO PULL PLUG ON DOWNTOWN CONVENTION HOTEL

If an SEC complaint is filed, there will be a lot of questions to be answered by the persons involved, including council members, in Mile Burke’s $20,000,000 Renaissance North / North Prospect failed project. There are questions as to where all the money raised went??

CFRG earlier asked the City where the $20,000,000 for this project went, since the project never got built. The City ended up paying for these bonds, so we understand. Below is the answer we received.

Question #1: what happened to the bond money?
City’s Answer: "The original project bonds, totaling approximately $13 million dollars, were issued to finance public improvements, … certain developer soft costs, capitalized interest, a debt service reserve and cost of issuance on the project. (...We received a list of projects not individually priced out).

Another $ 6.04 million in bonds were issued in 2015 to finance the lawsuit settlement and cost of issuance.”

Question #2: Were the bonds issued tax free??
City’s Answer: "All bonds issued for the project and to finance the lawsuit settlement, with the exception of $411,747.84, were issued on a federally tax-exempt basis."

CFRG questions why the City paid for the lawsuit settlement? Is it legal to use bond proceeds for settling litigation? The Harbor Bancorp suit in San Diego is being cited as similar to what happened in the Northland.

You can research the case at Harbor Bancorp & Subsidiaries v. Commissioner 115F.3d 722 (9th Cir. 1997). All parties involved in the Northland project may be involved if a complaint moves forward, this would include City Council members. The Renaissance North / North Prospect project was promoted by Mike Burke who is the same developer pushing the downtown Hyatt Hotel. KCMO does not need another fiasco like the Renaissance project.

Time to pull the plug:

This week our City Council has the opportunity to stand up and tell the City Manager to "pull the plug on the downtown hotel project”. He made the offer to do so if the hotel developers do not have adequate financing in place by December 20, 2016. Regardless, if our Council Members do not want to be tainted by this project, they should take advantage of the City Managers offer and bail! He is giving them an out and the opportunity to save voting taxpayers in KCMO a lot of money.

The City Council Members need a little push! You can help by Calling, emailing or both this week. Tell your council person it’s time to get out of this deal. Encourage them to do the right thing.

Citizens for Responsible Government
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Developing . . .