South Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska could have zero business tax rates and still not be able to attract Fortune 500 companies.They remain frontier areas with minimal cultural climates and sub-zero weather climates.It takes more than low taxes to attract sophisticated corporate employees. They do have one attraction, however; two U.S. Senators each that can be easily bought.

Hmmm..Last I heard South Dakota had an employment boom and nobody to fill the jobs. How Is St Joe doing?? Still laying off shifts full of people to drive home on pot hole filled roads? How's that for friendly? Really don't know what the tax situation is in New Jersey now, but I do know that they didn't have personal property taxes because of horse racing.(and while we are teaching lessons on politicians in the penal system, I do recall seeing an entire group of Democrats in NJ in handcuffs when they got caught stuffing thier pockets) And New York had no sales tax on groceries.

Mr. Newton there is a huge difference between low taxes and not keeping up with a current infrastructure let alone keeping up with the modern world which most human beings, especially ones in business, kind of want which requires investment often through tax dollars.

Businesses want low taxes but never ever before they want to be at a place that can support the business by having the resources, support and the best employees they can find and most lacking for Saint Joseph the ability to bring in employees in skill and management if needed.

Saint Joseph might as well put giant billboards around the entrances to our city stating we are not friendly please do not think about bringing your business here. The only thing we plan to do is scream “good enough”, occasionally slap a new coat of paint on some things and watch as much of the rest of the country moves forward till they cannot see us from the rearview mirror. Low taxes is always a public winner but it goes toward our selfish narcissistic delusion that goes to the heart of our financial mess both as citizens and our governments. We want everything but do not personally want to make any sacrifice to get it. So we think low taxes, heck yes, then we complain about the conditions that taxes go for and anytime a big problem comes up we look at our governments for solutions.

High taxes may not be anyone’s friend but low taxes is not a friendly message either. No business is attracted to a place that cannot show they have their act together and are looking to them for a handout. It has to be a two way street. There is an old cliché in business, it takes money to make money. Businesses have to have many things before the tax amount is a deciding factor.

St. Joseph was a finalist for a major manufacturing company’s new plant and corporate headquarters. When the search committee visited St. Joseph they were very excited by the tax structure but the funny thing is that during their visit they didn’t just look at their building site, they wanted to see our schools, our fire stations, our police stations and our roads. They ruled St. Joe out as a contender because they said our low tax base hinders our ability to provide the infrastructure for business’s to thrive and provide the quality of live they seek for their employees. Low taxes does not necessarily equate into a great place to live. We need reasonable taxes with a government that operates efficiently and is held accountable for the spending of tax dollars.

***They ruled St. Joe out as a contender because they said our low tax base hinders our ability to provide the infrastructure for business’s to thrive and provide the quality of live they seek ***

That is business speak for : You didn't kiss our butt enough and all the illegals are already working at the packing plant.

Rk - see a problem we have with these posts are uniformed people such as yourself pop-off about things you know nothing about. The company located in a community with a much higher tax structure and their deal they took had about 50% less tax incentive money from the respective state. This company provided a place for skilled workers and their manufacturing pay scale started at $17.25 per hour and topped out at $24.00. Tell me how many of these jobs we have here today...

What manufacturer was it?

***They ruled St. Joe out as a contender because they said our low tax base hinders our ability to provide the infrastructure for business’s to thrive and provide the quality of live they seek ***

And who said that?

I would love to tell you the name of the manufacturer but I am bound by a confidentiality agreement, I probably have said to much because those who were involved would know exactly the company I speak of.

And who said that...

I was in the room when one of the member’s of the company's search committee gave the reason that St. Joe did not make the cut to the top 3 cities.

Boz44-knows what he is talking about.

Well..we all weren't in the room for the big secret meeting. If we knew they were coming, we all could have dressed up a bit. Should we call the chamber of commerce and find out who this company is??

Rk – call the chamber, and it was not a secret meeting it was just a meeting. And dress up our roads, schools and other infrastructure???? Sorry, but like the old saying goes; you can’t dress up a pig!

Isn't that just amazing that a company would care enough about where it puts significant investments to look over the community, its roads, schools, etc. They must reach the conclusion that this is a reflection of what the community thinks of itself.

Boz44,
You are correct companies do not want to locate here because of just these issues you addressed.Now though lets look at why these issues you addressed are not being taken care of.It is all not the fault of the community some of the burden lies with the city goverment and the school board and yes the public itself.But if our current leaders know these issues as well as the public does why and I stress why are we not working together as a community to fix these problem for we can attrack better businesses then Triumph foods to provide jobs for our community.It seems as if there was good paying jobs here people would not have some of the issues with paying higher taxes to fix the issues.It is going to have to be a 2 way street and all party's are going to have to be involved to solve these issues or St Joseph Mo will continue down this self distruction mode we are in.By the way you wouldn't be talking about Smith Electric Vehicles would you.

Nevermind, I see the end game here. We need all new schools so vote for the school levy. And apparently we need to build a new law enforcement building also. (I didn't realize it had fell into disrepair, it is not that old is it?)

I am shocked Boehringer Ingelheim would add jobs here..in fact, we are lucky they just didn't pack up a move. I have always found St Joseph to be very liveable, low crime rate,great shopping, lots of available housing. I have traveled quite a bit and spent time in other cities and haven't seen anything that blows St Joseph away. But that is just me I guess.

rk92559,
You are correct some companies have chosen to grow here in St Joseph and we do have all of these great things you mentioned we just have a lot of issues that ly downtown in a few biuldings and a few people running things and this is why nobody supports things these people ask for.

Seriously, "crashdrive"? Have you been to South Dakota? I moved away from there just a couple of years ago and there are Fortune 500 company jobs a plenty. While it is primarily "frontier", they do not have a sub zero climate. Yes, it does get cold there and does on occasion dip below zero, but last time I checked so does Missouri. The economy in Sioux Falls, SD and surrounding areas is booming and their are jobs o' plenty. Rapid City, SD is also growing and is certainly not in an economic crisis. As far as minimal cultural climates - that is ludicrous. Sioux Falls is much more diverse than St Joseph. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my time in St Jo but I think you should remember that St Jo is not KC. Know what you're talking about before you offer your opinion.

rk - no end game here, I was commenting on Ken's article which is about tax base and companies that go else where even though our tax base is one of the lowest. Everyone that reads my posts probably understands I support a plan that replaces our schools with new state of the art schools (not all at once but over time, we havent built a new school for over 30 years). Let's talk about what great facilities do.. Blue Springs passes an $80 million bond for athletic facilities, why? Well in speaking with community leaders in Blue Springs they say one reason is population growth for a community is good and when people move to the Kansas City area Blue Springs was not able to compete with the Johnson County area, so they created great facilities for kids and population growth started. Look at the growth around Staley Farms - what do they have, just the best school facilities in the state.

I got the pleasure of hearing the Liberty players and coaches making fun of our city and the facilities Central has when they had to tape their players on a table on the track in the rain before their game. Great impression! We should just live with the status quo.

Police facilities are not bad but these business executives had concern when they learned we had less than 10 squad cars on duty at one time to cover the entire community.

Don't hate me, I am just telling you what this company said was the reason they did not come to St. Joe.

I don't hate you. But get real.I don't give a crap if we have on deputy named Barney. There has been one murder here this year. My Aunt lives near Blue Springs, has for 30 years and she is bailing out. She fears for her life. Is their big shiny athletic facilties bullet proof? As for Liberty players making fun of our facilties being a reason to build all new...who gives a crap what they think.I have lived in KC, and I would live in a one room shack with no plumbing here before I would live in that crap hole again.

rk - you have to have a community that is progressive not repressive. I grew up here, moved around the country and worked hard to get back here, so I am in St. Joe by choice. Now you need to take your head out of the sand and face the reality about our town. We are below the state average in income, education and above the state average for citizens that are incarcerated. These are not opinions these are facts – look them up. We have to improve our town if we want to attract and retain quality jobs. We must improve our roads – go look at the roads in the industrial park that houses JCI, very impressive given that the city will not commit to support the businesses that are already there, how do you think this plays with businesses that are looking to come here? Our schools are producing kids that are scoring below the state and national average on college entrance exams and we are below state and national averages for kids going onto higher education. This creates a work force that is less than impressive to prospective employers. We have to build a community that can attract top quality citizens that will then attract top quality employers. Why should we care about how people react to our school facilities? Because, people that have a bad experience tell 20 people more than those that have a great experience and the kids that are coming to our schools to participate in sports and academic activities are the ones that someday may have the opportunity to move here and make a difference.
.

Boz44,
You never did answer do you think it is all the public fault that our city is like this?I grew up here as well and have moved around and we are here by choice as well but as I stated above this is a 2 way street the city and the school district as well as the public need to address this issues together.Or is this just another onesided issue and the public bears all of the fault for our current state of our community?As far as attracting top quality citizens what is wrong with the citizens we have you say they are undereducated so this is who's fault?What are we suppose to do kick all of people born and raised here out and bring in a new population?If our people are under educated they are products of our schools.You fail to see that this is a issue which involve many and it is not just the community's population at fault.We need to spend a little time worring about what is happening in our commmuninty and working on getting the issues resolved and getting companys to locate here and stop worring about what people in Bluesprings school think about us.Its almost like the jones keeping up with the jones.Like I said if we do not do something our community is going to continue down this self distructing path we have been on for years.Problem is status quo has been the norm for so many years.Look we have people that worked for the chamber and city going to work for Triumph Foods to put a spin on things for them for they look like one of the greatest things around these are the type of things that happen in our community and our leaders are just as much at fault as anybody is here in town.I am here to tell you we need better jobs then Triumph foods where they treat the hog better then they do their employees.I have heard management saying certain things about people of our community and this is the kind of companies we attrack and seek out.Triumph is worse then Monfort ever thought about being.See they want the type of people that are like what you are saying we have Boz44 and this is why they hire so much from the outside and not from our local work force.Talk to the state unemployment office and get their take on Triumph?So until the status quo changes in our city goverement as well as other areas such as school leaders and the chamber we will continue to reap what we sow.Politics hard at work in our community since the people of St Joseph need to told what to do we are so dumb we are products of the St Joseph School District.

The comments and the article continue to lend validations of my argument on the school issue. The present way we fund things in general is not good enough. If we really want to make improvements for quality of life, jobs, etc in the community, we need to invest heavily and get away from the status quo thought processess that hold us back. Getting to future state means investing heavily now, not several years from now. Things like sunset clauses and political statements about being a "low tax state" do not help in moving forward. They may sound like wonderful things for a perception of control and living cheaply, but there are drawbacks that those are clearly evident in the community as well as other areas where there is minimal investment.

MM - the government and school board are a relflection of our community. I truely believe you are a good person and mean well and have some valid thoughts and ideas about the school issues. However, I think personal responsibility plays a larger part in our problems than you would like to admit. We need to take responsiblity for our government and school boards and if we do not like them only we have the power through the vote to change them. We all need to take an active role in understanding how politics affect our community and each citizen has a responsibility to participate in creating the environment they want for our town.