Reining In Tax Breaks For Developers

Mark Funkhouser, Kansas City's auditor for 18 years, will now be the city's mayor for the next four years. He narrowly won over a two-term city councilman and mayor pro tem who has devoted his life to public service. Funkhouser's grassroots campaign didn't use a professional manager and spent half as much as his opponent's professionally-run campaign.

"The top issue in the contest between Funkhouser and Brooks, oddly enough, involved a complex and esoteric economic development incentive called tax increment financing. Few might have guessed that a debate over TIF would grab the public's attention. But at its heart, TIF was about equity and who controls city government - developers winning tax breaks or city officials."