Clay County Commissioner Jason Withington has had trouble dealing with citizens' concerns about new taxes from the proposed Royals Stadium in North Kansas City. Withington, who supports the construction of the Royals Stadium, recently put out a statement in which he apologizes for using profanity on Facebook and explains that his use of the F-Bomb arises from frustration with people assuming that the county commission will readily grant the Kansas City Royals baseball team whatever they request in negotiations with the county commission to build a new Stadium in North Kansas City. He suggests that once all relevant information is made public, many of these assumptions may be proven wrong.
Here is the quote. "Yesterday I said the "F word" on here. If that offended you I'm sorry. But when people *ASSUME* the county commission is just going to give the #Royals whatever they ask for it gets old. One day everything will be sunshined and made public. When that happens, I a lot of people's assumptions will be shown to be incorrect."
It is not often that this lil happy rock becomes irate, but here are some of the communities' responses to Commissioner Withington that made him so irate.
"Excuse me, Mr. Withington, never thought you would be a corporate stooge for developers. But first learn to use spell check. Think of the $25K BARBIE wrap that Kansas City taxpayers are paying for on the streetcars! Are these things necessary?! I can only think of how many people struggling in KC could have been helped. Is Clay County gonna be the same as Jackson County? Is it cute? Yes! Is it Needed No! Can money in this economy be better spent?? YES! Do the Royals or Chiefs need New Stadiums No! Mr. Withington, time for the government to wake up and realize citizens are not cash cows or geese that lay golden eggs. "
"I don't care about the f-bomb you dropped, it's when you start apologizing for offending people, that’s when they’ve got you. You are a pansie. "
"I care about being raped for more tax money so the billionaire can still charge me $30 for a hot dog and beer, in his shiny new stadium that we will ultimately pay for one way or the other. Can anyone really afford to take the family to the ballpark? MLB blew it looking for TV revenue and blew it with dynamic pricing. They also blew it with pre-purchase-only tickets and parking. And when the team sucks who cares! I am tired of supporting billionaires and millionaires. No public funding."
"You say that the polls conducted by the developers and the Royals show a majority of clay supports the stadium. Wow, “the Team” has done polling and it is favorable! What are you an idiot? Anyone I get in conversations with opposes the idea of a stadium in Clay County. I would not trust anything Sherman and his team of cronies say I guess when we finally get to vote it will show up in the polls. "
"Clay County residents are not stupid enough to want taxes raised to support a new stadium for a team that sucks. Not to mention traffic and infrastructure issues. NOT IN OUR BACK YARD!"
But is Commissioner Withington really taking his constituents fear of more taxes seriously? Can we blame them if he is in effect asking them to take his word for it? Should we expect Commissioner Withington to keep a cool head? Or is that too much to expect? I leave to readers to decide.
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