Mr McTaggert,

We would love to know what your opinion is of some of the issues that we have posted here. We would also be interested in what your vision is for the city of Edwardsville. Do you advocate tax incentives to attract new business ? What is your stance on consolidation ?

We would be interested to read anything that you would consider posting about.

Thank you for you invitaion to comment.
As I see it the Mayor and Council has done a pretty good job of brining this city out a very serious deficit.
And I would like to see the city move forward on sewers for the northend......110th & Riverview.
That is where I see as the location for the most potential for future development.
Tax incentives are a fact of life. The original intent by the federal government when this program was started was to give local governments a tool to stimulate areas where industry was stagnet. Having said that it spread rapidly to become a catchall for development throughout the country and had been abused to a great extent. However I do feel that most governing bodies have learned how to use it for longer lasting and controled development.
The next response covers both tax incentives and consolidation.
Without consolidation and tax incentives Wyandotte County would not be what it is today..No race track....no Legends......no Village West...and most of all the big housing boom that has taken place since 2000.
Thanks again,
John "Tiny" McTaggart

Thank you for posting, Mr. McTaggart.

I appreciate your response Mr McTaggart. I believe you are correct as far as tax incentives. I would like a little more clarification on the question of consolidation. I see your point in that consolidation has brought some good such as the race track however there is a great deal of concern over the police and fire departments. Do you support the consolidation of the Edwardsville and Bonner Springs fire department with KCK ? Do you support consolidation of the police departments ? If so could you point out why you think it would be beneficial ?

I don't think you realize how almost impossible it would be to consolidate emergency services such as police and fire!!!!!!!!!!
I don't know why anyone would think that it would be feasible or benificial....I certainly don't!
But you will hear arguments supporting it......but not from me!
Thanks,
John "Tiny" McTaggart

Thank you Sir.

thank you from me also.
i know most of the older retired and a few of the younger (middle aged) officers on the kansas city kansas police department and i have full respect for them and their job but i live in edwardsville and i want our city to have all the things needed to make it a good city to live in. thank you for your post and i hope you read some of the other posts on this island so you can get a feel for our ideas on other subjects. thank you and please post on any thread your interested in.

it's time to say and we hope you continue visiting this island thread so we can keep sending
back and forth.

I agree completely. Congratulations Mr McTaggert and we do indeed hope that you would continue to visit The Island often. Please feel free to use it as a podium or to get a read on how, at least some of, your constituents feel about issues.

Dear Mayor McTaggart,

in todays paper..http://www.bonnersprings.com/news/2009/may/22/golden-gaming-casino-withdraws-bid/

“Edwardsville continues to discuss potential development along its well-positioned I-70 commercial district, and Golden's withdrawal opens up further opportunity for new business and economic growth in the highly desirable commercial corridor,” McTaggart said in his statement.

please keep us informed as to who may be interested in this development area. we are very interested also!

it will be nice to have income...and we will be interested in how it is spent also!

Please visit often...we will be looking forward to having a chat!

http://www.bonnersprings.com/news/2009/jul/15/edwardsville-going-be-forced-make-hard-decisions-2/

Edwardsville going to be forced to make hard decisions with 2010 budget

For more about ideas suggested by the council for dealing with the budget, check back with Thursday's Chieftain.

please tell me what a mill is? i am stupid about these things....

we can do a street car i bet! i want to go to shawnee, bonner and kck and kc, mo....where else! yeah...some parks and pools etc! i will be taking 3 kids or more with me!

are we in EDWARDSVILLE going to apply for any money for us to have public transportation?!! we need it! get to it please so i do not need a car i can not afford and pay insurance i have no money for!
__________________________________________________________

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1328372.html
There’s a $1.5 billion pot of discretionary money for transportation that hasn’t been doled out yet. It’s expected that billion of dollars in projects will be requested for any number of projects

There are already bus rapid transit routes being planning for Metcalf Avenue and Shawnee Mission Parkway in Johnson County and another for State Avenue in Kansas City, Kan. Those two bus lines could cost more than $50 million.

Edwardville mill levy rate is around 40 mills and one mill is equal to about $60000.00 give or take $1000 or $2000.00.

Quoted from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_tax
The property tax rate is often given as a percentage. It may also be expressed as a permille (amount of tax per thousand currency units of property value), which is also known as a millage rate or mill levy. (A mill is also one-thousandth of a currency unit.) To calculate the property tax, the authority will multiply the assessed value of the property by the mill rate and then divide by 1,000. For example, a property with an assessed value of US$ 500,000 located in a municipality with a mill rate of 20 mills would have a property tax bill of US$ 10,000 per year

http://www.wycokck.org/assets/C889CB4D-62F4-4B6D-8E22-8A4B39619712.pdf

http://www.ksrevenue.org/PVDMAPS/Wyandotte.pdf