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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAs police layoffs loom, Raytown considers declaring Walmart a public nuisance
http://fox4kc.com/2017/09/26/as-police-layoffs-loom-raytown-considers-declaring-walmart-a-public-nuisance/"RAYTOWN, Mo. -- Ten years after Raytown cut Walmart a sweetheart deal to convince the retail giant to come to town, city leaders are discussing declaring Walmart a public nuisance.
The discussion came during a special session to discuss budget cuts that will lead to police layoffs.
We have cut literally everything we can when it comes to these departments," Alderman Jason Greene said during the meeting.
There should not be any mistake. With a reduction of $3 million in cuts, people are going to lose jobs," Chief Jim Lynch said.
In an open letter released on the Raytown Police website Monday, Chief Lynch said he would have to cut 17 full-time police officers to meet the budget demands.
For months both alderman and residents have pointed to one 2007 vote as the source of the citys problems. A TIF, that's erased roughly $3 million dollars per year in tax revenue from city revenues.
"Right now we are getting this much from Walmart," Alderman Eric Teeman said forming his fingers in a zero."
Walmart does not pay anything to the city of Raytown; no property taxes, anything because of the TIF," Cheryl White said."
Doreen
(11,686 posts)with one of the most crooked corporations in the world. Someone is going to get hurt and usually it is not Walmart. The city leaders are the ones at fault for this situation they got Raytown into. Greed.
GReedDiamond
(5,299 posts)...walmart uses a parasitic business model, this is only one of the potential end results.
Hayduke Bomgarte
(1,965 posts)Meet roosts.
The_Casual_Observer
(27,742 posts)That place makes some pretty stupid decisions. Why do they need all those cops in the first place? Is it a hot bed of terrorism or something? Jesus.
SergeStorms
(18,903 posts)with Walmart's "corporate socialist" business model? I don't understand the scorn directed at the City and people of Raytown. They really don't seem to be the villain in this dust-up. Just curious, no malice intended.
Ligyron
(7,592 posts)to deal with all the shoplifting said Walmart complained about.
On top of that, the federal gov has to subsidize Walmart employees with "food stamps" since they don't even earn enough to feed themselves.
msongs
(67,199 posts)SoCalNative
(4,613 posts)[link:|
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)and the city collects no tax from increased sales at a new, much larger store it has to provide municipal services for. Wonder how many towns Walmart has perhaps threatened to pull out of to renegotiate sweetheart deals like this one. This is according to a 2007 news blog in Rayport, MO. http://raytownreport.blogspot.com/2007/12/walmart-tif-explained.html
... So, I have some catching up to do . . . from my reading of the posts, it is clear that explanation called for in explaining how the TIF created by the city for Walmart works. Raytown Live is the name given to the TAX INCRMENT FINANCING District where the new Walmart Super Center is to be constructed next summer. Call it what you will the TIF is there for two purposes: 1. To build a new votech school for the School District. 2. To pay for the infrastructure (parking lot, buildings, etc.) for Walmart.
RAYTOWNS WALMART TIF: Tax Increment Financing is the term given to the practice of creating a taxing district and using the tax collected to finance the commercial entity within the district. Most TIFs are written in such a way that a 1% sales tax increase is split between the community (in this case the City of Raytown) with the other half to the development. Raytowns Walmart TIF does not work that way. In the Raytown Live TIF District most of the sales tax dollars collected will go to pay for the building of the new votech school and the new Walmart. That sales tax revenue collected includes the citys regular 1% sales tax, the Fire Districts ½% sales tax and the special transportation sales tax voters recently approved to pay for street overlay.
To appreciate the enormity of the bite the TIF district is taking out the citys sales tax one need only look to the sales tax revenue collected by the current Walmart Store located at 67th and Blue Ridge Cutoff. That location collects 12% of the citys sales tax dollars. The difference between the old Walmart and the one to be built on 350 Highway is that the 12% collected at the current location goes directly to the citys coffers. The sales tax at the new location will not go to the city, but to pay off the debt of the infrastructure costs of the school district and Walmart. Since the new Walmart will be larger and have a grocery store it will create more than 12% of the citys sales tax revenue. Some place the additional sales tax as capable of creating up to 18% of the citys sales tax revenue. The point is, the amount will be greater than the current 12% -- whatever that figure is, it represents money that will not be available to maintain our streets, remove snow, pay police, etc.
Raytowns TIF is also unique in another way. It has the full faith of the city behind it. That means that if the new Walmart does not meet the anticipated income levels to pay off the debt, the city is obligated to pay the debt for Walmart. The majority of the citys fathers are betting that other development will take place in property adjacent to the new Walmart to make up the difference created by the debt service. Time will tell whether or not that scheme is successful. In the meantime, look for tight city budgets in the near future.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)Did city leaders lock them into this deal for perpetuity?
pstokely
(10,511 posts)nt
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)more money into the area, nothing to do with taxpayer giveaways to religion. If it were here in Georgia, for sure it'd be the latter, and the first only as a hope.
TeamPooka
(24,156 posts)SergeStorms
(18,903 posts)They take every cent of public money they can get their hands on and give hardly anything back. Their employees have to turn to Medicaid for any health coverage, because Walmart doesn't give them any benefits.
Want to talk about Socialist corporations? Walmart is at the top of the list. Every penny of profit is privatized, but the cost of doing business, and any losses incurred, are socialized. If people only took a minute out of their lives to examine how widespread this "corporate socialism" really is, they might think differently about Federal programs that help our citizens, instead of greedy, over-paid corporate nabobs.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)NCjack
(10,279 posts)profits local. We tried to tell you. Now, bankruptcy is the only way out of that agreement.
yet rinse and repeat ad nausea. There's always another sucker community over the hill
HAB911
(8,811 posts)after the video the text will appear
snip
Law enforcement logged nearly 16,800 calls in one year to Walmarts in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties
, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis. Thats two calls an hour, every hour, every day.
Local Walmarts, on average, generated four times as many calls as nearby Targets, the Times found. Many individual supercenters attracted more calls than the much larger WestShore Plaza mall.
When it comes to calling the cops, Walmart is such an outlier compared with its competitors that experts criticized the corporate giant for shifting too much of its security burden onto taxpayers. Several local law enforcement officers also emphasized that all the hours spent at Walmart cut into how often they can patrol other neighborhoods and prevent other crimes.
Theyre a huge problem in terms of the amount of time thats spent there, said Tampa police Officer James Smith, who specializes in retail crime. We are, as a department, at the mercy of what they want to do.