Earnings tax vote, how do you view it? (Kansas City, Lee's Summit: neighborhoods, buying)

[Ztonyg]

Well, it looks like the earnings tax won with overwhelming support.

[lovekcmo]

Even though it won, it's still an unfair tax on workers who don't live in KC. I still love the ideal of suburbs taxing KC residents who work outside KC, there's probably more of them than non residents working in KC. And if KC and other cities had been more proactive/responsible with their cities 50 years ago, residents wouldn't have left like they did for suburban life.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

Even though it won, it's still an unfair tax on workers who don't live in KC. I still love the ideal of suburbs taxing KC residents who work outside KC, there's probably more of them than non residents working in KC. And if KC and other cities had been more proactive/responsible with their cities 50 years ago, residents wouldn't have left like they did for suburban life.

I'm curious. In what ways should KC (and other cities, as you say) have been ore proactive/responsible 50 years ago? What could they have done to counteract white flight?

[lovekcmo]

Originally Posted by rwiksell

I'm curious. In what ways should KC (and other cities, as you say) have been ore proactive/responsible 50 years ago? What could they have done to counteract white flight?

It wasn't white flight, it was flight from school busing. Busing students away from their local neighborhood schools. My parents flew out of midtown in 1973 because George B. Longan elementary was only a block away and I wasn't going to be going there because of busing. The doing away of neighborhood schools across the country in favor of busing is what accelerated people leaving the urban areas. Schools should have had the same standards and opportunities and in time people would have moved on their own around urban areas.

[TabulaRasa]

It was a part of life the first six years I lived here, which I spent working exclusively in Kansas City and largely living in Kansas City. Now I neither live nor work in the city itself. It's never bothered me, but I'm not a big complainer about taxes, in general. I basically just consider them to be my dues for being a part of a society with amenities.

[lovekcmo]

Originally Posted by rwiksell

I'm curious. In what ways should KC (and other cities, as you say) have been ore proactive/responsible 50 years ago? What could they have done to counteract white flight?

A lot of people, myself included, will not live within KC limits because of the city tax. I have to pay $500 a year to KC because I work within KC. Maybe Lee's Summit, where I live, should impose a 1 percent tax on the KC residents who work in Lee's Summit?

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

A lot of people, myself included, will not live within KC limits because of the city tax. I have to pay $500 a year to KC because I work within KC. Maybe Lee's Summit, where I live, should impose a 1 percent tax on the KC residents who work in Lee's Summit?

Lee's Summit has higher property taxes, higher utility taxes, and most areas of Lee's Summit that you shop at have higher sales taxes than most of KCMO. Then if you have a single family home, you would need to pay for your trash pickup which is funded by the etax in kcmo. That's about $300 annually.

You are NOT saving any tax money moving from KCMO to Lee's Summit. You will actually pay more and there are not many jobs in Lee's Summit, so if you ever lose you job, I guess you will never take a job in KCMO because if you did, you would really be shooting yourself in the foot by not living in KCMO and still paying the etax.

The etax is just not that big of a deal.

[TabulaRasa]

You can certainly decide not to live in a given municipality and/or not to work in a given municipality if you disagree with the tax situation. Nobody's forcing you to live/and or work somewhere with regulations with which you do not agree against your will.

[lovekcmo]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Lee's Summit has higher property taxes, higher utility taxes, and most areas of Lee's Summit that you shop at have higher sales taxes than most of KCMO. Then if you have a single family home, you would need to pay for your trash pickup which is funded by the etax in kcmo. That's about $300 annually.

You are NOT saving any tax money moving from KCMO to Lee's Summit. You will actually pay more and there are not many jobs in Lee's Summit, so if you ever lose you job, I guess you will never take a job in KCMO because if you did, you would really be shooting yourself in the foot by not living in KCMO and still paying the etax.

The etax is just not that big of a deal.

I work downtown KC MO, live in Lees Summit. The etax is a big deal in that it's not right. Why should I be paying $500 a year for the privilege of working in KC. I work for the Federal Govt. Homeland Security has a big center in Lee's Summit. Maybe Lee's Summit should do a "shake down" of those employees that live in KC?

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by lovekcmo

A lot of people, myself included, will not live within KC limits because of the city tax. I have to pay $500 a year to KC because I work within KC. Maybe Lee's Summit, where I live, should impose a 1 percent tax on the KC residents who work in Lee's Summit?

I think my question still stands. You said KC should have been more proactive and responsible 50 years ago, to keep people from leaving for the suburbs. The eTax is not that old, so you must be thinking of something else. Care to explain?