Is there a freakin' tax for EVERYTHING in KCMO? (Kansas City: hotels, house)

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by rwiksell

San Diego is the girl you date (if you can). Kansas City is the girl you marry.

Denver is the girl you dated and married

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Denver is the girl you dated and married

...till you divorce her and marry DC, amiright?

[Eli H]

I grew up back east. Came to Kansas (central) when I was 16 for a vacation/family visit. I was pretty much on my own because of the death of a parent. I loved 2 things. The wide open cleanliness of everything and the people were nice. I moved here later that year & don't regret it. I've been in Kansas City for 20 years. Never picture myself living in city. I think bigger cities are nice places to visit for sure. But for me I like everything about the area except the weather. The weather is usually too hot or too cold. But everything else, the people, the prices, the day to day living is great. And we have the Chiefs. This city unites on game day. I love that. The only more united that I've seen a city outside of tragedy is Chicago when the Cubs are at home.

KC is Kool!

[madamey]

You wanna talk about an area with astronomically high taxes and little to go for it, it's called easterrn Nebraska. No food tax, but property tax is over double than Missouri, yearly licensing fees for cars are around $2-300/year, sales tax in Omaha is right behind KCMO's, and there is an extra restaurant tax, if you are eating out. Alcohol tax is also pretty high. All they need is an urban tax a'la KCMO tax (which is not that different than other cities, if I'm not mistaken) and you've got one of the most ridiculous Midwestern tax schemes in the nation.

[lepoisson]

That 200-300 dollar tax in Nebraska sounds about the same as the property tax here in Missouri.

I paid $150 on a Toyota Corolla (that was 6yr old at the time).

[westender]

KCMO still shocks me everytime I get lunch or coffee downtown. The rate is over 11 and 1/2 % That's astonishing by US standards. Most of KC's peer metros max the sales tax around 5%.

Current tax on a $4.50 Starbucks: 52 cents, yielding a total due of $5.02. Takeaway Chinese food at 8.98? Tax brings the total to $10.03. A ten-dollar bill is not enough to buy an eight-dollar-and-change plate of stir-fry in KC.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by westender

Most of KC's peer metros max the sales tax around 5%.

I call BS. What major metro has a sales tax of just 5%?

(But yes, 10% is excessive, not to mention 11.5%)

[GraniteStater]

Kansas should not tax grocery food items at the full rate. That is criminal. Many states don’t have sales tax for that category.

[westender]

Portland OR, Wilmington: 0%
Between 5% and 6%:
Richmond, Portland ME, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Des Moines

Source Here

Kansas City is out-of-bounds with sales taxes approaching 12% (and headed upward yet again with more overlays and special districts).

[Weaubleau]

KC is stealthily expensive for quality stuff. It's not that you HAVE to spend a large amount of money on stuff, but if you want to purchase something higher quality, it is expensive, in fact many times it is more expensive than high cost places, because there is not a demand for that item in KC.

If you want to buy cheap mass market crap, then KC is fine and not that expensive. For example for good cheese, it obviously is much less expensive in Europe, but it is also less expensive in HAWAII of all places, even after the expense of shipping it halfway across the globe. In KC you can go to the Better Cheddar ( not picking on them, but their prices are what they are) and pay and arm and a leg for good cheese not available elsewhere, or eat Kraft Cheddar/Monterey Jack etc., there is not that much in between. Likewise for good beer. A good Belgian beer in Paris is 5-6 Euro (~$6-7), in KC it is $ 10. Of course, you can get Bud/Coors/Miller Light, for $5 but it is crap.

Another example, I paid $19 (converted from Pounds) for a fish and chips dinner at a restaurant in LONDON, one of the most expensive cities in the world, and paid $23 for virtually the same fish and chips dinner at a local KC mid scale restaurant, within 3 months of each other

Sorry for the rant, but for stuff that isn't crap, KC is not a cheap place. Add the 11-12% sales tax and intermittent electric service and safe to say I am becoming disenchanted.