It is my opinion that Eric Persson would be a terrible choice for the Ward 2 seat currently held by Dr. Mike Kemmling. Mike is running for reelection.
Why do I say that about Eric Persson. If you go to his website by clicking here, you will see why.
First, Persson does NOT give you any biographical data about himself. That's right. No background info. No mention of what types of jobs he has held, what types of responsibilities he's had, what his education level is, what his community involvement is, what organizations he belongs to. Nothing! Nada! Zero! His background is, by his omitting it, a big blank, a nothing. No indications of what qualifications he has to be a member of the council. Why doesn't he mention any of these things? Is he embarrassed by his background? Or maybe there is nothing in his background that would qualify him to be on the council?
Maybe that explains why this statement, from his website, is empty of reality. Read it first, and I will explain below. Oh, if you want, click on it for a larger image:
What he says, sounds good. And it would be nice. But why is it unrealistic? First, let's look at some facts. Commercial property taxes account for the low 20's in percentage of property taxes received. As a comparison, Lenexa's runs in the mid 40's. Wow. So, with a bunch of new developments over the past 10 years why hasn't the commercial tax base increased? The answer is easy. It's the alphabet soup of incentives that city council with a traditional overload of liberal socialistic democrats has fostered on the citizens. They all claim to want the increase in commercial property taxes, but then they vote to give away the farm. Mike Kemmling feels that certain projects warrant that, but not all. And yes, Dr. Mike has fought against some of these overloaded incentives. But the liberal wonks say if we don't give them, then the developers won't come. Heck, and when they do, what does the city get?
We can look at many of the more recent ones, but one in particular comes to mind. Westbooke Green.....75th and Quivira. The initial presentation by the developer was beautiful. Apartments, retail, restaurants, an amphitheater for public use. The council (or the liberal element in the majority) really gave away the farm in incentives, property tax abatements, and a plethora of others to include giving up the city's 1% sales tax and giving that to the developer. Needless to say, what the city is getting no way comes close to what we were told. The project has been greatly reduced in scope. Yet, the incentives are still there. Don't even ask about the abomination that was going to be Belmont Promenade. That is a story by itself. Also, some of these projects also get various alphabet soup additional taxes (over and above the 1%) which also go to the developer.
Some folks say we shouldn't bring out political philosophies. Sorry, can't help it in this case. With all of the problems we are facing nationally, much of it trickling down, we do not need liberal influencers on the city council. We cannot afford to have council members who would vote to give away the farm to every project. We need council members who will be selective to vote for projects that are truly win-win. Persson is not that man.
