Kansas City is #26

An article appeared today listing 19 cities with a greater number of public employee to resident ration than Detroit. Detroit’s statistics are:

DETROIT

Residents per employee 61
Population: 713,777
Employees: 11,645
Annual payroll: $651,437,244
Average compensation: $55,941
What’s not included?

Number 1 on that list is, not surprisingly, Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON DC

Residents per employee 25
Population: 601,723
Employees: 23,631
Annual payroll: $3,477,829,176
Average compensation: $147,172
What’s not included?

What isn’t shown in these demographics is the income to debt ratios. We know that Detroit’s ratio was negative…more debt than income. Decades of deficit spending came home, finally, to roost.

Detroit has been ruled by democrats since 1962. Louis Miriani Mayor of Detroit.jpg Louis Miriani, a republican, was Mayor at that time. Being a ‘pub didn’t excuse him from being corrupt. In 1969, he was convicted of federal tax evasion and served approximately 10 months in prison.[96]

The city really didn’t go downhill until the election of Coleman Young. Young was elected in the aftermath of the 1967 riots and the resulting “white flight from Detroit. Coleman blamed his predecessors and called them an “occupation army.” Young used the falling economy of Detroit to build his power base. It was  the beginning of the end for Detroit.

You can find the list of failing cities via this link. Kansas City isn’t in the top 19 but at #26, it’s close.

KANSAS CITY

Residents per employee 69
Population: 459,787
Employees: 6,646
Annual payroll: $357,365,988
Average compensation: $53,771
What’s not included?

Kansas CIty, like Detroit, has been suffering under decades of democrat rule who, like all democrat pols, blame everyone else for their failings while ignoring the very visible fact that it is their policies and actions that was the root cause of their continuing failure. That is also true of other major cities across the US.

Mrs. Crucis and I are fortunate we moved from Kansas City and Jackson County nearly two decades ago. Kansas City’s finances are as shaky as is Detroit. The city’s allegiance to unions and their opposition to Right to Work result in more and more businesses and industries moving across the state line into Kansas, a Right to Work state.

The real tragedy is that Kansas City and Jackson County (MO) residents have swallowed the democrat line, hook, line and sinker. They ignore the warnings, if they see them at all. The Kansas City ‘Red’ Star certainly won’t report the coming danger. No, they are part of the problem—becoming the democrat’s propaganda organ for Kansas City.

The best we can do, to lessen the impact of Kansas City’s coming failure, is to isolate the consequences to Kansas City and Jackson County. When Kansas City and Jackson County inevitably arrive at Jefferson City with their hands out, we, the citizens of Missouri, our Legislature and Governor, must be ready to say, “No!”

Kansas City, like all the democrat ruled cities,  has created their problems. It must be up to Kansas City, and those other cities in similar circumstances, to get themselves out or their predicament. The day of cities sucking off the rest of their state is over.

Oh, by the way, St. Louis is in that list at #11…higher than Detroit!

ST LOUIS

Residents per employee 50
Population: 319,294
Employees: 6,335
Annual payroll: $600,533,640
Average compensation: $94,796
What’s not included?

 

Response to a KC Star Columnist…

C. W. Gusewelle is a columnist for the Kansas City “Red” Star. I’ve added the “Red” to the name since it is appropriate given their leftist politcal bias. Gusewelle likes to present himself as an outdoorsman and hunter and has frequently waxed poetic about his dogs, cabin and the outdoors. In reality, he’s another leftist hack supporting the liberal political line.

In Gusewelle’s August 23rd, 2009 column, as seen here, Gusewelle, speaking about moving the Gitmo prisoners to Leavenworth, said this.

On the Guantanamo issue, the central complaint seems to be that bringing the detainees into the U.S. would put the civilian population at unacceptable risk.

Utter, unadulterated nonsense! The Disciplinary Barracks, if that were to be the choice, is a rigorously secured installation.

Bear in mind that these relentless kibitzers are the same worthies who would resist to their last breath any government move to further regulate gun ownership in this country.

They subscribe to the paranoid notion whipped up by the NRA that, at any moment, some federal functionary might come barging in to snatch hunting guns from the closets of law-abiding sportsmen.

In their view, locking up enemy combatants in a maximum-security prison would be an unbearable threat to public safety. Whereas allowing legions of gangbangers, truants, psychopaths and professional criminals to roam city neighborhoods, loosing volleys from their easily gotten assault rifles, is no particular cause for concern.

Gusewelle claims that it is the NRA’s fault for all the killings in KC from “assault rifles” completely ignoring the facts that no such thing has occurred. Are there “legions” of gangbangers, truants, psychopaths and professional criminals roaming Kansas City neighborhoods? Probably. But I doubt any are NRA members, nor any acquired their weapons in the same manner you or I would. Most likely they either stole them or bought them through the black market for much more than the price at a gun store.

In addition, while the Disciplinary Barracks are secure to keep prisoners from escaping, they are not designed to prevent attack from outside. Nor is the surrounding community. That fact, of course, Gusewelle ignores as irrelevant and immaterial.

Kevin Jamison, is a local Kansas City attorney, a staunch backer of the 2nd Amendment and was one of the leaders who finally won Concealed Carry for Missouri residents. Jamison answered Gusewelle’s statement about the government seizing our guns in this article.

SNATCHING GUNS
“DOES IT MATTER CASSANDRA?”
K. L. Jamison
KLJamisonLaw@earthlink.net

In his 23 August, 2009 column Mr. Gusewelle refers to the “paranoid notion whipped up by the NRA that, at any moment, some federal functionary might come barging in to snatch hunting guns from the closets of law-abiding sportsmen.” Perhaps we might be forgiven this “notion” because it has already happened. After the Katrina hurricane hunting guns were seized from law-abiding sportsmen all without a speck of legal authority. Closer to home, following the Greensburg, Kansas tornado, hunting guns were seized from sportsmen, again without a speck of legal authority. Mr. Gusewelle may choose not to believe these reports, but a federal district judge in New Orleans did. When the National Rifle Association filed suit to stop the theft of hunting guns from sportsmen New Orleans denied that it had stolen guns. After video was introduced of the chief of police declaring that no one would be allowed to have guns and of the seizures themselves the City admitted the seizures but denied having the guns. When this lie was revealed New Orleans agreed to stop stealing guns and to return the ones they had stolen. However, in order to retrieve his property the sportsman was required to produce ownership documentation calculated to discourage even those persons who had not been through a hurricane. While the court proceedings ground on, the guns rusted to dust; which may have been the intention.

We trust that such seizures shall not occur in Missouri. The National Rifle Association which Mr. Gusewelle disparages pushed through a law forbidding confiscation of Mr. Gusewelle’s treasured shotgun on such specious grounds as seen in New Orleans and Greensburg. It has also promoted laws to preserve wetlands for hunting, shooting ranges to sharpen skills, and imposed a tax on ammunition to fund the Department of Conservation in order to ensure that there are open spaces for the many decades we trust are left to him. Throughout those decades NRA members will defend his right and opportunity to shoot such birds he finds necessary or convenient. In the fullness of time six of our members shall carry Mr. Gusewelle to his reward, after all, we have carried him thus far.

Well written, Kevin.

Response to a KC Star Columnist…

C. W. Gusewelle is a columnist for the Kansas City “Red” Star. I’ve added the “Red” to the name since it is appropriate given their leftist politcal bias. Gusewelle likes to present himself as an outdoorsman and hunter and has frequently waxed poetic about his dogs, cabin and the outdoors. In reality, he’s another leftist hack supporting the liberal political line.

In Gusewelle’s August 23rd, 2009 column, as seen here, Gusewelle, speaking about moving the Gitmo prisoners to Leavenworth, said this.

On the Guantanamo issue, the central complaint seems to be that bringing the detainees into the U.S. would put the civilian population at unacceptable risk.

Utter, unadulterated nonsense! The Disciplinary Barracks, if that were to be the choice, is a rigorously secured installation.

Bear in mind that these relentless kibitzers are the same worthies who would resist to their last breath any government move to further regulate gun ownership in this country.

They subscribe to the paranoid notion whipped up by the NRA that, at any moment, some federal functionary might come barging in to snatch hunting guns from the closets of law-abiding sportsmen.

In their view, locking up enemy combatants in a maximum-security prison would be an unbearable threat to public safety. Whereas allowing legions of gangbangers, truants, psychopaths and professional criminals to roam city neighborhoods, loosing volleys from their easily gotten assault rifles, is no particular cause for concern.

Gusewelle claims that it is the NRA’s fault for all the killings in KC from “assault rifles” completely ignoring the facts that no such thing has occurred. Are there “legions” of gangbangers, truants, psychopaths and professional criminals roaming Kansas City neighborhoods? Probably. But I doubt any are NRA members, nor any acquired their weapons in the same manner you or I would. Most likely they either stole them or bought them through the black market for much more than the price at a gun store.

In addition, while the Disciplinary Barracks are secure to keep prisoners from escaping, they are not designed to prevent attack from outside. Nor is the surrounding community. That fact, of course, Gusewelle ignores as irrelevant and immaterial.

Kevin Jamison, is a local Kansas City attorney, a staunch backer of the 2nd Amendment and was one of the leaders who finally won Concealed Carry for Missouri residents. Jamison answered Gusewelle’s statement about the government seizing our guns in this article.

SNATCHING GUNS
“DOES IT MATTER CASSANDRA?”
K. L. Jamison
KLJamisonLaw@earthlink.net

In his 23 August, 2009 column Mr. Gusewelle refers to the “paranoid notion whipped up by the NRA that, at any moment, some federal functionary might come barging in to snatch hunting guns from the closets of law-abiding sportsmen.” Perhaps we might be forgiven this “notion” because it has already happened. After the Katrina hurricane hunting guns were seized from law-abiding sportsmen all without a speck of legal authority. Closer to home, following the Greensburg, Kansas tornado, hunting guns were seized from sportsmen, again without a speck of legal authority. Mr. Gusewelle may choose not to believe these reports, but a federal district judge in New Orleans did. When the National Rifle Association filed suit to stop the theft of hunting guns from sportsmen New Orleans denied that it had stolen guns. After video was introduced of the chief of police declaring that no one would be allowed to have guns and of the seizures themselves the City admitted the seizures but denied having the guns. When this lie was revealed New Orleans agreed to stop stealing guns and to return the ones they had stolen. However, in order to retrieve his property the sportsman was required to produce ownership documentation calculated to discourage even those persons who had not been through a hurricane. While the court proceedings ground on, the guns rusted to dust; which may have been the intention.

We trust that such seizures shall not occur in Missouri. The National Rifle Association which Mr. Gusewelle disparages pushed through a law forbidding confiscation of Mr. Gusewelle’s treasured shotgun on such specious grounds as seen in New Orleans and Greensburg. It has also promoted laws to preserve wetlands for hunting, shooting ranges to sharpen skills, and imposed a tax on ammunition to fund the Department of Conservation in order to ensure that there are open spaces for the many decades we trust are left to him. Throughout those decades NRA members will defend his right and opportunity to shoot such birds he finds necessary or convenient. In the fullness of time six of our members shall carry Mr. Gusewelle to his reward, after all, we have carried him thus far.

Well written, Kevin.