It keeps getting bigger.
A few weeks ago we announced our 2024 winner of The Landmark Award for English. You may have noticed it on the front page in our May 22 edition. It’s a monetary award presented to a graduating Platte County High School senior each year since 1982. A faculty panel at the high school chooses the winner for us and the announcement is made each May.
This year’s winner is Diana Alberty Taveras of Kansas City in Platte County. For this year’s award, Diana receives a total of $500. Of that, $250 comes directly from the newspaper and another $250 is matched by a Landmark reader who wishes to remain anonymous. That reader has been matching our award amount for a few years now.
This just in: The award is growing again.
Right after this year’s award was announced, we were approached by another Landmark reader who wants to contribute to The Landmark English Award. This reader, who also wishes to remain anonymous, is throwing in another $250. So next year’s winner of the newspaper’s award will receive a record high of $750. That’s a nice little gift to a graduating senior.
Congratulations to Diana and other past winners of the award that has been going on for more than 40 years. And a huge public thank you to the two anonymous readers and also to our Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame member Bill Hankins, who gives proceeds from the sale of his two Landmark People books toward the award.
Here’s your occasional reminder that the largest tax increase in the history of the County of Platte will be on your election ballot on Aug. 6. More than $400 million in new taxes for a jail sounds like a lot, even if you say it fast.
Not sure but I’m starting to think some of the players in the WNBA are jealous of Caitlyn Clark, you guys.
This hasn’t received any publicity just yet but it is a fact that there are many folks who work inside of the Platte County Administration Building who are absolutely NOT on board with the county commission’s proposed $400 million half cent sales tax for 20 years to fund a major jail expansion and operations of a Prison Palace.
It’s helpful and important for the public to know that not everyone at the county thinks this proposal is a good idea. The primary reasoning behind their opposition? They believe the tax rate is too large and it runs for too long.
Likely more to come on this.
Recently we mentioned the United States Postal Service’s twice a year–at 10% each time–postal increases for newspapers and other periodical class mail. Here’s a new piece of info on that topic.
The News/Media Alliance worked with U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vermont) and Mike Rounds (Republican-South Dakota) on a recent introduction of a bipartisan bill, known as the Deliver for Democracy Act, legislation that would limit excessive postal rate increases and incentivize reliable postal service delivery.
The bill would:
•Require the USPS to either achieve at least a 95% on-time delivery rate for periodicals or an improvement of at least two percentage points to unlock its two percent surcharge authority for that class of mail.
•Direct the USPS to annually report to the Postal Regulatory Commission on its progress to including on-time delivery data in its periodical service performance measurement.
•Instruct the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study and submit a report to Congress on options for alternate USPS pricing schemes.
You’ve heard me say many times over the years that The Landmark has the smartest readers. This continues to be consistently proven true.
The financial analysis of Platte County’s proposed half cent sales tax for 20 years for a jail expansion and jail operations by Gordon Cook, an accountant who has done some work for Platte County in the past, continues this week. Another letter to the editor from Cook is on this page. Bottom line is he continues to find information from the county that is not at all friendly to taxpayers, to put it mildly. And an important reminder: Cook is friendly with the county commissioners and is often like-minded with them on issues, so his open criticism of their proposal is extremely notable and has to be driving the commissioners out of their minds.
Some of the pertinent points raised by Cook this week include:
*It appears that approximately $144 million of the county’s calculated $237 million in expenses would be covered by the county’s existing quarter cent law enforcement sales tax. So why is the county proposing double taxation for those expenses?
•Cook notes that excess tax collections are generated in every year of the 20 year projection, assuming a 4.5% interest rate on the issued debt. These excess funds accumulate to $45 million, even without interest income. Including interest income would significantly increase this excess amount. If the commission’s goal is to collect only what is needed to cover debt service and jail operating expenses, what is the purpose of the excess?
More evidence that this tax proposal is way over the top and way more than even many of the county commission’s cohorts were expecting.
Uh, oh. As you’ll see in a letter to the editor in this edition, Jason Maki–the Platte County man who got so fed up after being given the run-around by the City of Parkville over public records that he ended up suing the city and accepting a $195,000 settlement as he was kicking the booty of the city’s high priced attorneys in the courtroom–is back with some public comments. Now Maki has his dogged and determined focus on the Platte City License Office. This ‘fight,’ for lack of a better word, is a different animal, because as he points out in his letter the license office is not a government operation. But still. When Maki gets his mind set on something it’s generally time to get the popcorn ready.
(Catch Foley popping popcorn and roasting proposed tax increases. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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