• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Pickem Terms and Conditions
Thursday, May 15, 2025
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem!
    • Weekly Pickem Updates
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem!
    • Weekly Pickem Updates
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish
No Result
View All Result
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
No Result
View All Result

Platte City Chamber of Commerce has issues with state group

Mark Vasto by Mark Vasto
January 22, 2004
in Platte City
4
SHARES
90
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email

Citing concerns that the Missouri Chamber of Commerce doesn’t adequately support school districts, the Platte City Area Chamber of Commerce (PCACC) has issued a resolution calling upon the governor and the Missouri General Assembly to end partisan bickering as they struggle to provide school funding.

While the resolution doesn’t mention the Missouri Chamber of Commerce by name, both Platte County R-3 Superintendent Mark Harpst and PCACC director Karen Wagoner criticized the state chamber in a recent meeting of the chamber.

RelatedNews

Hwy. 92 bridge repair to require full closure

It will be Paolillo vs. Hoeger for mayor

Former public works director arrested after armed barricade

At the meeting, held Thursday in the Northland Career Center, Dr. Harpst called on the state chamber to open their “ears and eyes to local education.”

The controversy stems out of the state’s budget crisis and Gov. Bob Holden’s withholding of nearly $200 million from the state’s public education budget. The state chamber has come under fire from some area chambers for opposing certain corporate tax increase proposals. The state chamber believes that corporate tax hikes would hurt Missouri more than help in the long run.

“They need to get tuned in to their local chambers,” Wagoner told The Landmark. “They don’t seem to plug themselves in and find out (what’s happening in local towns). The smaller local chambers support their school districts, and we understand the importance of a strong educational system when it comes to economic issues.”

In response to a Webb City Area Chamber of Commerce letter to the state chamber — a letter referenced by both Harpst and Wagoner — state chamber president Dan Mehan outlined his group’s position on state funding for education.

“Let me assure you, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry is in complete support of providing the funding that gives all Missouri children a quality education,” Mehan wrote.”We have never supported an agenda that would cut public education funding, nor will we in the future support an agenda that harms Missouri’s public education system.”

Mehan said any claims to the contrary were both “unfair and inaccurate.”

“There are those that have attempted to frame the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s opposition to the inequitable corporate tax increases that were proposed during the 2002 and 2003 Legislative Sessions as a position against public education funding,” Mehan said. “We objected to the corporate tax increase proposals in the last legislative session because most were unwise and would have caused far more damage to Missouri’s economy than any tax revenue that would have been generated.”

This is not the first time in recent months in which Platte City has had a disagreement over financial issues with the state chamber. The Platte City aldermen voted in September to be excluded from the state’s proposed sales tax holiday for back-to-school supplies from Aug. 13-15.

In that decision, city aldermen expressed concern over potential lost revenues. The state chamber has criticized the nearly 38 counties and 68 cities who have also chosen to opt out of the plan. In addition to Platte City, Blue Springs, Excelsior Springs, Riverside, Smithville and St. Joseph are among the cities to exclude themselves from the tax holiday.

The chamber believes that in addition to affording families a break on school supplies — many of which are now being required by certain school districts — it could actually boost sales of non-exempt items in stores.

“We think it’s a knee-jerk reaction,” Ray McCarty, director of financial affairs for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce recently told the Kansas City Star. “It’s an age-old thinking that the state shouldn’t be pushing that down to a local level.”

Wagoner said she hopes for the opposite, that the state chamber and area chambers will have a closer relationship in the future.

“The bottom line is, before they used to represent the local chambers,” Wagoner said. “Right now they don’t.”



Tags: platte cityplatte countyriversidetaxes
Mark Vasto

Mark Vasto

Related Posts

Roundabout

Real estate, education, roundabouts

by Guy Speckman
May 14, 2025
0

Let's nerd out on some Platte County real estate. The real estate market is quickly pumping the brakes around here. Listings are moving upward, and houses are sitting on the market longer. It's starting to look like 2017-18 around here....

Randy Foley

Forever thankful for these moments

by Ivan Foley
May 14, 2025
0

Thank you to the many folks who have reached out in person, by text, and via social media after the death of my brother, Randy, last week. Heck, some of you even offered to help by covering an event or...

Surgery Center of Northland

Surgery Center of Northland being built in Platte City

by Landmark Digital
May 14, 2025
0

GROUNDBREAKING HELD ON KENTUCKY AVENUE A groundbreaking ceremony for a planned surgery center was held in Platte City on Friday afternoon, May 9. Surgery Center of the Northland will be a state-of-the art ambulatory surgery center featuring four operating rooms...

The Landmark English Award

Winner of The Landmark English Award

by Ivan Foley
May 14, 2025
0

CatLinh Beckett, of Kansas City in Platte County, is this year’s winner of The Landmark English Award, a cash scholarship presented by the newspaper each year to a graduating senior at Platte County High School. This year’s award of $750...

Next Post

County jobless rate best in metro

Popular News

  • police lights

    A critical injury in crash on Hwy. 152

    131 shares
    Share 52 Tweet 33
  • Police pursuit ends with fatal shooting of suspect

    83 shares
    Share 33 Tweet 21
  • Surgery Center of Northland being built in Platte City

    14 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • Four alarm fire at Haydite plant

    11 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 3
  • KC commits $25 million to new workforce center

    21 shares
    Share 8 Tweet 5
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Pickem Terms and Conditions
Call us at 816-858-0363

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Subscribe Online
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved