Yet another taxpayer subsidy for more shopping
Thanks to yet more taxpayer assistance, the Mission Gateway project finally appears on the road to reality.
Earlier this week Wal-Mart agreed it would impose an extra half-cent sales tax on customers at its proposed store in Mission. That revenue, along with funds from a similar sales tax charged at other retail outlets at the project, will help make it possible.
Once again, as it’s done throughout the metropolitan area for years, Wal-Mart will be erecting a new store in a subsidized development.
Mission officials are expected in January to embrace the idea of imposing the half-cent sales tax at the shopping center as part of a community improvement district. In addition to a Walmart store, the developer hopes to offer a fitness center, grocery, restaurant and 300 apartments.
However, a once-promised aquarium and an accompanying hotel have been dropped, so the development has lost some of the allure it once had as a real game-changer for Mission.
Mission Gateway also will affect neighboring Roeland Park.
Wal-Mart’s store there will close in the next year or so, draining the city of at least $500,000 annually in sales tax revenue. City officials are scrambling to find ways to continue providing public services. Earlier this month, voters rejected a three-quarters cent sales tax increase proposed by the city.
At this point Roeland Park has become another casualty in the costly scramble for publicly subsidized shopping centers in the two-state area.
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