I've been having so much fun this summer that I forgot my blog password! We've been taking advantage of cheap travel rates this summer because people are too scared or unable to get out of the house. I did need to log in tonight and make sure you are aware of two really big questions on the ballot next Tuesday 8/4/2020. After initially posting, I've been given some constructive feedback that I just need to tell you to vote "YES" on the two Platte County questions. However, if you want the reasoning, continue on.
Before we get into the questions, I want to set the tone. The week after the April 2019 election where the jail tax was defeated, a few of us were sitting around going "holy crap, we're headed into a financial train wreck in 2021."
Why were some of us deeply concerned? Somehow county politics was devolving into some tribalism and it all revolved around the 1/2 cent parks and storm water sales tax. One side of the electorate just couldn't believe the County is collecting and spending $9M a year on parks and storm water when the Sheriff's Office wasn't fully funded and was losing deputies hand over fist because the County salary structure wasn't anywhere close to being competitive with other governments. The other side of the electorate saw a serious effort to eliminate the parks and storm water sales tax and wasn't going to budge from renewing it at the 1/2 cent.
Both sides in my observation cared deeply about the County but were aligning in a very adversarial position and it wasn't going to be good for anyone because the parks and storm water sales tax expires in December of 2020. I was not horrified but we were looking at a horrible situation in January 2021 where we would have no parks and storm water funding to build and maintain what we want and no resolution to the law enforcement funding. Both sides would have nothing and the County would not be better for it.
So some of us called our Commissioners the same week and basically said there needed to be a process to vet out the options with people who are not tied to County staff, the Commission, or any elected office. It needed to be an independent review by people with different backgrounds and not biased for or against either position. The committee members were selected by the Commission and if you read the committee news release, you can see the varied backgrounds of everyone. I was on the committee.
You might think I selfishly wanted this so I could get control over the discussion. You would be right in the fact that I selfishly wanted on the committee because this is such a crucial decision point and I'm not planning on moving anytime soon. I wanted to make sure all sides were heard out and meshed together to understand each other's viewpoint so a long term solution could be worked on. I feel that spending $9M a year on parks and storm water when the sheriff's office can't fund salaries is not good government. I also am a proponent of parks and trails and while I'd love trails everywhere and a playground in every neighborhood, we shouldn't be building things we can't take care of. However, there does need to be some capital to maintain what we have and to build things as our population grows. My selfish agenda was to come up with something blended that worked for both sides and didn't over fund so that someone would go out and build a bunch of public buildings that cost so much to maintain.
I could go into more detail on everyone on the committee but the news release does a good job. Everyone brought something to the committee from their perspective and biases that was heard out and I feel reflected the both sides of the debate and limited government conservatism. We heard budget and operation presentations from the sheriff's office, prosecutor's office, parks and recreation department, and county auditor.
In summary, after six months, the committee was 100% unanimous with a recommendation that the existing 1/2 cent tax structure be put to the voters as two separate questions. While it appears that the sales tax was cut in half to appease both sides, this was based on some superb revenue and expense projections done by two folks which looked at the next ten years. I can't give enough thanks or kudos to Gordon Cook of Cook Consulting Group who took time from his business to interview and discuss details with department heads and the county auditor, Kevin Robinson, who also did a lot of work reviewing Gordon's data.
You can read the entire 21 page report here. I am going to show you the working spreadsheet created by Gordon that the committee used to determine what level the tax structure should be set up. Now this is a bunch of CPA type detail that I would expect very few people to understand. I just want to illustrate that the committee was using actual historical expense data with expected expenses on an annual basis to 2030. It is also important to keep in mind the committee and Commission wanted to make sure there were emergency reserves. As we saw with the federal radio mandate and with the covid shutdowns, it's responsible to plan for unexpected events. These spreadsheets were set up to do what if situations and there was some robust debate between committee members. This wasn't a one or two person controlled committee with some dominating egos. Again, the Commissioners need to be commended for their choices.
Here is the screenshot from the law enforcement side of the analysis. Under the assumptions from historical expenses and projected revenue and expenses until 2030, if we approve a 1/4 law enforcement sales tax, in 2030, we will have funded a responsible increase in the sheriff and prosecutor's offices to accommodate a decade of population growth and also an operative reserve just over $7M. I need you to note that this 1/4 cent sales tax will not provide any funding for a new jail. As you should know, I am very anti-public building because they tend to be over designed, over budget, and a monument to wasted space. The committee agreed and so did the Commission because the ballot language specifically states that these funds are not to be used for a new jail.
I am very confident that this level of funding will adequately fund our sheriff's office and will not over fund it to allow purchasing of a bunch of equipment or facilities we don't need. While I think Sheriff Owen is very responsible and makes due with what little he gets budgeted, I don't know who might be there in 2028.
Here is the screenshot for the parks and stormwater analysis. I understand why the tax was set at 1/2 cent years ago. It was to build and expand the two community centers. Community centers are extremely expensive to build, operate, and maintain. Luckily we have the YMCA as our operator and those two buildings are generating revenue to handle O&M. We may WANT one but we don't NEED another center or pool therefore we don't need a 1/2 cent sales tax.
There was a long discussion on setting the new tax level at an amount to just maintain what we have vs setting it at a level to build new things. Sales tax rates were set at 1/8 and 3/8, 3/16 and 3/16, 3/16 and 5/16, etc and the committee was able to see the impacts at respective levels.
The committee wound up agreeing that some new capital is needed to support a growing county and to take advantage of funding partnerships with cities. Besides finishing a connected trail system, I fully supported some type of funding to allow for a grant program to provide for playgrounds and swings in all of our cities because there's nothing better to combat video game laziness than playgrounds and swings. Kids who live in a town like Dearborn should have a place to walk or ride their bike and play together. There are also some places with storm water problems that need to be addressed. Under our analsysi a 1/4 cent parks and storm water sales tax is projected to generate enough to fund County parks/storm O&M and allow for a capital program of $24M for new park amenities and $6.25M for storm water improvements.
How that capital program gets spent would be up the Platte County Park Board. The storm water projects would be chosen by the Commission.
Now you may be wondering what type of improvements we can get for around that amount? Well Gordon asked me that question and over a weekend I put together an example plan if I ruled the world. I would knock out our two biggest storm water problem areas, finish a connected trail system in the southern part of the County where we've started, and set up a grant program. In 2030, we can renew and keep connecting the County.
Again, this is me acting like king and using my years of professional experience and understanding development and business attraction to maintain and grow the tax base. The Park Board which is appointed by the Commission would need to do a planning process to determine how to spend it.
I think Gordon wouldn't mind me sharing this story as long I as I tell everyone if I was a small business owner, I would have him on retainer to guide my future business financial decisions. As we were deliberating, he mentioned that he wasn't exactly excited about growing the parks system and the associated O&M liabilities but after showing the map above and how it connected a lot of things, he mentioned that he saw how people liked our trail system and understood why people didn't mind paying a sales tax for them.
As I mentioned, the committee was 100% united in a 1/4 and 1/4 cent sales tax breakdown. None of us took this lightly. There was a motion to split the tax at a 1/4 the night we first started looking at the spreadsheet but some of us weren't ready to make a decision without talking to some folks and looking at the numbers ourselves. We ended up coming back a few weeks later and all agreed that 1/4 and 1/4 was the right mathematical decision based on all the information in the projections.
Here is how the questions appear on your ballot.
For those of you that live in KCMO, you might need some more Platte County deputies on patrol if some of the "abolish prison/police" leftists get their way. For those of you that live in smaller cities like Lake Waukomis that are relying on the County to provide law enforcement, you need to vote yes because the current funding levels don't provide the level of service you used to get from your own departments.
Again, these funds are not going to be used for a new jail. I had joked in the meeting that if ever I was being held hostage, my code phrase would be "I think we should raise taxes and build some new public buildings." If you ever hear me say that, PLEASE send help. The committee and Commission agreed with that limitation.
Anyone who might be thinking they can vote yes on one and no on the other, just keep in mind this keeps the funding for he County at the same level. If one passes and one fails, the County Commission will have to cut services. We need reasonable funding for our parks and our law enforcement. We can do that by keeping our sales tax level the same.
I could go into a bunch of other items and discussion points and you could bring up what ifs or problems with the analysis but I will close with I have not seen another governmental entity pull its executive leadership together with experienced citizen volunteers without any political influence by the governing commission, labor unions, or the building industry to come up with a solution. It frankly is a text book case of how good government can work and Dagmar Wood, John Elliot, and Ron Schieber need to be commended for realizing the importance of this decision for the future of Platte County.
You also have a question on expanding Medicaid which isn't well thought out and legislating by ballot which is full of unintended consequences. If you are a no vote on this, make sure you vote no on it and not the County questions. Also, if you are all hot and bothered by the covid shutdown created cuts to education from the state budget, wait until the state budget has to fit this into an existing strapped budget.
Lastly, this post took 2 hours to put together. In case you are wondering why I'm not publishing lately, it's because we've been busy enjoying this summer. If you think my analysis is useful in your decision on how to vote on Tuesday, please feel free to share the post.
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