Coming soon to Shawnee

A new tax!!

Shawnee's Mayor gave a rousing speech at Shawnee Town 1929 last week.

The State of the City address noted all of the city's accomplishments in over the last 365 days. Just kidding. The point of the speech was to advocate for two sales tax increases in Shawnee this year.

Lucky you, citizens of Shawnee. 

First, Mayor Jeff Meyers celebrated a council decision to place the renewal of an eighth of a cent sales tax on the November general ballot. The tax is to cover "parks and pipes." 

Meyers said the city's next step in moving forward is adding another tax to the ballot. This additional quarter-cent sales tax would be to cover street maintenance. 

At current levels, Meyers said each city street is only touched once every 27 years.

I seriously don't have words for this garbage. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Shawnee does collect property taxes. And if those property taxes aren't covering parks or pipes or street maintenance, what are they doing with the money?

Maybe Meyers should have used his speech to offer some apologies. This is a popular segment in many State of the..... Addresses. You'll recall Brownback used his State of the State Address to apologize for segregation and the treatment of Native Americans. So, Meyers could have borrowed a page from that book. Only rather than apologizing for things in which Meyers had no role in, Meyers could have apologized for misuse of taxpayer money. Obviously that's happened, because how on earth does a city with record-low unemployment, increasing property valuations and growth need not one, but two extra sales taxes to fund its most basic services?

Short answer: It doesn't. Shawnee's governing body obviously lacks fiscal discipline. That, or the Mayor's request for two new taxes is a money grab.

I'm not ruling the money-grab out. Johnson County citizens, you can thank morons in Olathe for the upcoming sales tax money grabs about to occur. 

The transcript of Meyers' speech can be found here.