Jackson County, have I got a deal for you…
Children’s Mercy, St. Luke’s and UMKC have gotten together to form the Jackson County Institute for Translational Medicine and it’s going to be great. (First off, notice how they put “Jackson County” right in the name, so everybody knows it’s you. That’s great, right?)
The Institute will develop new cures and treatments for all sorts of stuff. (Just what, well, that’s to be determined later. Maybe it’ll cure blindness. Who knows?)
And it’s going to benefit not just Jackson County, but the entire metro area.
It will hire more than 200 new doctors. (Not doctors for treating the sick, but research doctors.) The Hall Family Foundation has committed $75 million to erect a new building to accommodate the Institute. (But, only if this tax bill passes.) Also, it will make Kansas City a national hub for medical innovation. (You know, probably.)
Jackson County, all you gotta do is vote YES next Tuesday, November 5.
YES to having every man, woman and child in your county pay a half cent sales tax on every single thing they buy for the next 20 years, giving approximately $800 million to the afore mentioned hospitals.
And, NO, there’s nothing that says these incoming doctors actually have to live in your county. And, NO, none of the other counties that are benefitting from this plan are being asked to contribute even one dime for this project, even those that may benefit more than you will. And, NO, there’s no plan to structure this tax so that it won’t impact your citizens that are struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head.
Isn’t that a great deal?
No, it’s not.
I’m not saying this plan is a complete boondoggle. I do believe its aims are pure and its goals beneficial. And I’m not saying that I don’t support a sales tax increase every now and then to fund civic projects. I’m a good liberal, I’ve voted to increase taxes many times in my voting life. However this plan doesn’t feed the poor or improve our schools or beef up our police or even fix our sewers.
It’s simply a business proposition.
And worst of all, they want Jackson County to pay for it with a regressive tax.
Frankly, I have a hard time asking someone who is struggling with basic financial needs to bankroll the salary of highly paid doctors who are as likely as not are going to take these huge paychecks and settle down with a lot of other doctors in Johnson County.
Typically a plan like this is financed by those who have the money to do so – the drug companies and foundations and the big-dollar donors. But, the Institute asked them for the money and they all said, NO.
Well, according to the Kansas City Star, the Committee for Research, Treatment and Cures did get some of those big-dollar donors to give $1.7 million. But that was just to advertise this tax proposal and insure that they will outspend those who oppose the plan by 4 to 1.
Still sound like a good deal?
Then consider this. They’re asking Jackson County to pass this regressive tax plan literally months before the Affordable Care Act goes into effect. The implementation of Obamacare is going to have an enormously positive impact on hospital finances. Hospital services are going to be used more efficiently and cost-effectively because fewer will be using the hospital for generalized care. With more people carrying insurance, and frequently more comprehensive insurance, there is expected to be significantly less write offs of hospital bills.
Most importantly, how much money would the hospitals make if only Missouri and Kansas would expand Medicaid under the Obamacare plan? According to a report by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), there are over 84,000 uninsured in Jackson County alone. How many of these uninsured leave unpaid hospital bills in their wake? How many never make it to the hospital in the first place because they know they can’t afford the bill? (I know, this isn’t speculative. My brother has a permanently deformed finger because, when we were young, my mother couldn’t afford to take him to the hospital when he broke his finger.)
Just asking, but maybe that $1.7 million might have been put to better use if they had spent it on lobbying our state legislatures to expand Medicaid.
In case you haven’t picked up on it, I’m going to be voting, NO, next Tuesday.
Regressive tax plans hit those on the lowest end of the economic scale the hardest. And it’s the simplest kind of tax to get passed because it has the illusion of fairness.
But, it’s not fair and the backers of this plan are taking advantage of this illusion.
They know there aren’t many that can raise the money to fight such a tax effectively. Those that are organized to help the poor are usually too busy focusing on food, housing, clothing and medical care to fight a well-financed opponent.
Jackson County residents have a good heart. They typically answer the bell when door-to-door salesmen come by and, more times than not, they buy what they have to sell. But, there’s nothing rude or heartless to occasionally saying, NO, when you don’t want what they’re selling.
Over at http://www.jimmysays.com , Fitz is leading the campaign to stop this regressive tax. If you go to his website, you can read, in depth the articles concerning this initiative, who the players are, why they are contributing and the real time costs of the 800 million dollar tax to the usual victims of pecuniarily insouciant, self aggrandizing plutocrats and kleptocrats who run this town. We “warriors for the working day” will expect to spend another 200 or so buckolas every year in sales taxes that will NOT be spent on infrastructure, as they are traditionally expected to do.
Jim Fitzpatrick is a Kansas City Star ex pat just like Hearne. His views are liberal, unicorn, pie in the sky stuff, but I love the guy, he is genuine and what I think we would all like from journalists we don’t agree with but respect and appreciate.
Again, this tax is the pernicious, standard boiler plate effort from our overlords to relieve us of what little cake we still have left to eat.
Vote NO!
By the way, the “tug at your heart strings” campaign FOR the tax is a great idea and will probably guilt folks into voting for the measure.
Again, look at http://jimmycsays.com/ for a time line, the truth and the players in this effort.
Hopefully the good voting hoi paloi of KC will see through this tax boondoggle Chuck.
Hope so.
🙂
Sorry, the link in my first comment is screwed up.
Again— http://jimmycsays.com/
As a parent of a child who is fighting leukemia (and currently winning, thanks to a bone marrow transplant performed by the excellent staff at Children’s Mercy), I’ll be voting yes. It’s going to pass, and it’s not even going to be close.
Thanks GWSWOT.
Thankful to hear your child is winning !!!
Prayers to your family Mr. Guy Who Says What Others Think. I am happy to hear that your little one is getting better!
🙂
I support medical research, and I always vote yes for taxes that increase public safety or quality of life or improve infrastructure. But this tax will not do that. I don’t see any real benefits to us at all, actually. I guess medical researchers would benefit (while living in Johnson County, of course); so would Big Pharma. Those “vote yes” ads are unethical at best. This tax isn’t going to increase access to health care for any of the people who currently do not have it, and it isn’t going to improve public health, either. Many folks in Jackson County would never be able to take advantage of any exciting new medical developments—if they even did result from this tax—because they wouldn’t be able to afford them. This is the wrong way to fund medical research.
+1
+2
guys who says….good luck with your child and their illness…CM is excellent.
I can’t vote but it seems these city leaders are loading on the taxes
iin kcmo….research tax…train tax…all kinds of taxes that they
need to vote on ….but way too many and eventually the
people will say no.
This has been a secret vote…I don’t think many people in kcmo
know what its about.
they don’t have time to understand it…but the big money in
kcmo is behind it….and even when kcbj retracted their endorsement..
more money came to dispel any doubts these city guys want this
tax…
will it pass….probably …
but we could do much more with billions more in the rapepublicans
would stop letting any new funding go to the key institutions that
fight all these diseases….they just keep shutting them down…costing
24 billion dollars…think what we could have done with that.
as far as new cures….I don’t see how this small amount of money
can make a difference…pharma and the hospital want the money
to pay expenses…yes…pay expenses……
800 million dollars…”????????? and not way to see where it goes?????????
wow…the people of kcmo are very trusting people
Toy Choo Choo Train tax, airport remodel nobody wants tax, oops the tax assesor screwed up your taxes tax, White Power District surtax.
What other taxes besides this lame hospital tax money grab can these chuckleheads think up?
+1
I’m glad people have finally woken up to the evils of regressive taxation. Now lets remember that next time some dolt tries to run for president on a plan to ‘simplify the tax code’ and make a ‘flat tax’