How will EPA's move to Lenexa gouge taxpayers?
Yael T. Abouhalkah(UPDATED at 2 p.m.) The Environmental Protection Agency’s regional headquarters reportedly will move from Kansas City, Kan., to a taxpayer-subsidized building in Lenexa.
It’s one more example of how public incentives have so badly skewed the whole “free market” when it comes to business decisions.
Soon, a building in Kansas City, Kan.’s down-and-out downtown will be empty. And about 700 employees will have left for a fairly new building in suburbia, on the fringes of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
As a result, the economic incentives offered by the state of Kansas back in 2005 will have hurt Kansas City, Kan., while helping its richer nearby neighbor, Lenexa.
This happened before, of course, back in 2005 when lawyers for Applebee’s convinced the state of Kansas that Applebee’s was getting ready to hop the state line and leave Overland Park to go to Missouri.
Oh, no, Kansas cried. So it handed out the rich incentives, all to essentially steal Applebee’s from Overland Park.
Lenexa “won” that war and it’s “won” again on Monday.
The only losers are taxpayers, who have to pay more in taxes for basic services because Applebee’s didn’t have to pay its fair share of taxes. And now the landlords for the new EPA headquarters likely will get the same deal, continuing the burden on local taxpayers.
Google+
Share
Tweet
Comments