Halfway Passage Is No Pass At All: Full Thrust Ahead For Black Heritage Tax

Will Missouri State lawmakers listen to tax innovation? Kansas City supporters of a sales-tax-free district will learn next year, now that Jackson County legislators have joined Kansas City Council counterparts signing off on the growth stimulus effort.

The proposal is to eliminate sales taxes for the next 23 years to spur business development in the Black Heritage district: Prospect on the east, Troost on the west, 29th north to 9th street. Gates Barbecue owner Ollie Gates tells KCUR he's prepared to go to Jefferson City to sell the plan. In his words,
"We're asking the state just to see if this would be a model for what we're trying to do in disadvantaged or disenfranchised areas of any city or any township in the state of Missouri."

Both houses of the general assembly need to pass the tax break. This year it made it half the way there.