Blogging for Accountable Government: Staci Craig, Kansas City, MO
If Kansas City bureaucrats thought citizens weren’t paying attention to their shenanigans involving tax-increment-financing (TIF) projects, they were very wrong.
TIF programs aim to help improve blighted areas, diverting taxes generated by developments in these areas to offset construction costs—but Kansas City residents had not seen an audit of their TIF program since 1998, when the program was found to be consistently falling below revenue projections, among other problems.
Another audit was due for release in June 2006, but local politicians continued to delay it—and by February 16, 2007, the City Auditor admitted he didn’t actually know when the review would be complete.
At this point, Staci Craig, a blogger at The Flogging of America, said enough is enough. Recognizing that this whole scenario fell smack in the middle of a municipal election cycle and that the elected officials—many of them mayoral candidates—may have been purposefully delaying the audit’s release for purely political reasons, she took action.
In mid-March, a budget was released projecting TIF costs to double—and the audit was still nowhere to be found. Craig wrote a letter to the City Council, the Mayor, and the Auditor, citing the Missouri Sunshine Law in her demand that the audit be released. She also posted this letter and the email addresses for these local bureaucrats on her blog, encouraging others to follow suit.
After getting Sunshine requests from other bloggers, community action groups, and The Kansas City Star, the city auditor finally made the audit report public—which revealed that the tax incentive program generated $233 million less than projected, and that a miniscule three percent of projects were in blighted areas, the TIF program’s stated purpose.
“I think citizens must hold their elected officials accountable whenever possible, but more importantly, let it be known that people are paying attention,” Craig said. “I think, too often, people are apathetic to what is happening at the local level, where a handful of votes, or even letters, can actually make a difference. I also think, at some level, self-serving members of our local governments count on that apathy in order to remain in office.”
Craig and a partner started the Flogging of America blog in November 2004 to focus on national political and social issues. But after campaigning heavily in the 2004 presidential primaries, Craig felt her energy would be better served on the local level.
“I see blogging as just beginning to be an effective tool in the political landscape, mostly because of the ability to disseminate information quickly,” she said. “If it’s a well-trafficked blog, what you’re saying will get passed along to other blogs, and even picked up by the local media….It’s surprising who will be interested in what you have to say.”
Craig encourages others to get involved wherever they can.
“It takes nothing more than writing a letter to get involved,” she said. “Write your elected officials. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Write your friends. Write a group that’s doing something you believe in, and ask them what you can do to help. Simply let your voice be heard.”
