What?

Election Day is next week.

We have you covered with your handy dandy guide to what's at stake.

From a haze of confusion over marijuana taxes to why Airbnb is on a ballot box near you.

And for all the anger over school closings and protests over the teaching of race and gender, why virtually no one is running for school board, which will.

End up as Mickey Mouse all of a sudden will be on the.

School board.

Plus, Mayor Lucas keeping his head down by refusing to debate before election Day.

His only opponent joins us to talk crime.

Lingering airport pick up problems.

And did you see this?

The bold new, ballpark design plan for the Kansas City Royals.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of AARP, Kansas City, RSM.

Dave and Jamie Cummings.

Bob and Marlene Gali.

The Courtney Turner Charitable Trust.

John H. Mize and Bank of America and a co trustees.

The restaurant at 1900.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines, and thank you for joining us on this pre-election edition of Weekend Review.

Joining us this week from the Kansas City Star Kynala Phillips, who's been lifting up the hood on everything from marijuana taxes to why Airbnb is on your ballot.

Michael Mahoney has been tracking the election as chief political analyst at KMBC nine News.

Lynn Horsely helped write KCUR's indispensable Election Guide and Eric Wesson has been up to his elbows in hosting forums and writing articles about what's at stake on Tuesday for the Kansas City Call newspaper.

If you didn't already know, local Election Day is next week.

And in addition to all the usual candidate races, 30 cities on the Missouri side and several counties have put marijuana taxes on the ballot.

We like to say in independence, we tax pot roast.

Why not tax pot?

That's the mayor of independence, Rory Roland.

His city joins Kansas City, Lee's Summit, Liberty, Blue Springs, and many more asking voters to approve a three cent local tax on marijuana product.

Several counties, including Jackson County, also want to give you the go ahead to slap a 3% tax on pot sales.

So, Lynn HORSLEY, what happens if both are approved?

You have to pay a city marijuana tax and a county tax as well.

That's still a question, Nick.

Jack, her daddy, who is with the Cannabis Trade Association, says no, that you cannot stack a county tax and a municipal tax.

But I think there are other group people that believe they can it will probably have to get settled in the courts.

It's not entirely clear in this constitutional amendment.

So there is some haze over this issue already, but it's going to get quite expensive canola because 3% of the city level, 3% of the county level and in the state also has a 6% tax on marijuana products.

Yeah, I mean, if you're in Kansas City, for example, and all of the the city and the county, and then on top of that, like you said, the state tax are approved, you'll be paying that, which could be up to 12% if you know, it turns out that, you know, you can stack those city and county taxes and that's before, you know, your regular sales tax, which in case you.

Pay that on.

Top.

Yeah, you're paying that on top of your regular sales tax.

Yeah.

There are some 70 cities or more in the entire state of Missouri that are are doing this and counties are involved as well.

So this, as Lynn says, this is going to end up in the courts for this and even at an additional rate.

And this applies only to recreational marijuana, not the medical marijuana.

Missouri state tax law would be far less than some other states.

Yeah, I was just going to say other states charge quite a bit higher tax.

California, Illinois.

Well, Colorado is 50%.

Illinois, like 30 something percent.

So it is less, but still 12%.

Will people be rushing out to the dispensaries over the next few days to stock up prior to all these taxes going up, Eric?

They might.

You know, they were bragging about, you know, they made $100 million the first month.

So I guess everybody has dollar signs in their eyes.

But you could get into a situation here because Kansas City is not Denver.

It's not Colorado.

I mean, California, where they tax themselves out of it.

And then people wind up going somewhere else to buy it, like the street corner.

I will say the cities do win.

Want to get in on this action?

There are the sales are off the charts right now and they see this as a revenue source.

In Kansas City, they have said they'll spend it on illegal dumping and neighborhood cleanups, homelessness solutions and violence prevention.

There was a broad categories, though, and Canada, there is other cities, though.

I mean, some of them are much more fuzzy, it seems, on what they're going to spend it on.

Some of them, like independents, we may spend it on a new police building.

Others will just put it in the general fund.

How do you know?

Actually the money is going to go to any of these places?

I mean, you really don't.

We'll have to see how it all rolls out.

If it if they say it's going to the general fund and that's where it's going, and people will have to stay on their, you know, local government to see where it goes.

But if it is in the ballot question, I mean, those citizens can at least look to that and say, well, that was a part of the ordinance that put this in the in the election.

But if you say this is for crime prevention or homeless services, that could be a huge number of things in Kansas City.

Absolutely.

And there we're talking about in Kansas City, Missouri, just alone over the first five years of this thing, they estimated it could be $10 million a year in terms of additional taxes to the to the city here.

So there's a big push, obviously, to get this done.

But as we've already talked about, whether or not you can stack a county tax on top of a local tax on this thing remains to be seen.

Well, what stops people, Eric, from just saying I'll just buy it from the street.

I don't even need to go to a medical dispensary store and save myself a lot of money.

Yeah.

Nothing to stop them from doing that.

But the interesting thing about it is they always pull on our heartstrings.

We're going to help the homeless.

We're going to do something about violence.

We're going to any time they want to pass a measure like this, they always come up with something, veterans or something along those lines.

The county is doing is one of the components of it.

Exactly.

That's what people want to hear and think that they're helping it.

But then when it gets down to it, does the money actually go into those areas to benefit those?

I say people just buying it from the street.

What surprised me Canal and I wasn't familiar with the whole how it was working that you couldn't use a credit card.

You actually have to use cash now because it's it's illegal at the federal level.

Correct.

Yeah.

You can't you can't just go in a lot of places, don't actually offer any cashless options.

There are apps in place where you can put, you know, your information in and buy, you know, cash is that way.

But I mean, for the most part, you are going to have to go to an ATM and use cash if you're going to a dispensary.

Yeah.

And there are some these dispensaries throughout Kansas City that contain ATM machines in them.

You know, Kansas is looking befuddled and all of this, of course, alone because they're not getting any say in this.

And they've just killed it for the session in Kansas.

But, you know, there's a lot of money to be made here.

Where is all of that money going in?

You know, how much money are we talking about, say, for Kansas City and Independence?

And how much is Kansas losing on this?

Like an Overland park, for instance?

Well, I think Kansas City is counting on $10 million a year after about after this ramps up.

I don't know about the other cities.

Apparently, there's just no appetite in Kansas.

They're all about gambling and sports gambling, which we can't which the Missouri legislature isn't yet doing.

So that seems to be where their attention is as far as raising revenue.

But it wouldn't have happened, though, I'm assuming, in Missouri, if it wasn't for the initiative petition process.

On marijuana legalization.

Absolutely.

And that's a No.

Another whole cattle station in Missouri.

And I just want to say that at the beginning of the session, I believe that Governor Kelly was pretty confident that she could get some sort of medical marijuana legislation through and that this is a setback for her administration and for Democrats in Kansas, that it's dead.

Why would somebody want to vote no on the 3% tax?

Would some people just say, well, hey, I don't I don't go there anyway.

If there's more money, I don't care how they spend the money.

If it's going to go to help fix potholes or pick up trash, I don't mind other people having to pay extra in taxes.

And that that's probably the general consensus.

And, you know, Kansas City has the terrible homeless problem, so that could get people to vote for it just on the fact that they're thinking that it's helping other people.

The main reason some people may vote against it is it's a sales tax, it's regressive, and there's a feeling that this will hit poor people more.

Now.

So Airbnb is also on the ballot this week.

Many of us love to go to other cities and oftentimes save money by renting an Airbnb.

But how would you feel if you lived next door to one?

Now you know it's a stranger every other weekend.

No longer should it be that people have to deal with issues relating to Airbnbs and get no answer from City Hall?

It's becoming such a huge irritant for many local residents.

Kansas City is placing two questions on next Tuesday's ballot for you to decide.

In Kansas City.

Again, there's two of these measures, but it all seems to be about funding taxes and fees on on top of Airbnb's.

What does it do to actually protect people like that lady there who is saying, I don't like the fact that there's a new person coming living next door to me every other weekend.

I mean, ideally, some of this money will go towards funding how this program is operating, but.

It doesn't say that in the.

Ballot.

It doesn't say that some of the money is obviously going to go to the convention center and tourism.

But that was the idea when it came to how do we better actually tax this programing and so that these ordinances don't actually get at some of the nuances issues that people are experiencing when it comes to Airbnbs.

But officials have said that is the first step, you know, especially when it comes to those audits that came out.

It's the first step to getting at those larger issues.

And so it might be a minute before we see that type of, you know, resolution.

Yeah, I think the city auditor pointed out that there's an uneven playing field right now.

These are these are hotels, in a way.

And yet the hotels have to pay a tax, a room tax or there's a tax on rooms and that there should be parity with the Airbnbs.

I think there also just is a feeling that the city council is on notice.

Residents want regulation and this could be a source of funding for increased enforcement and regulation to make sure these properties are not, you know, horrendous nuisances for the neighbors.

But again, there's no guarantee of that because it's not in the ballot language in any way, shape or form.

I was just wondering, also, some people make the be well, it's only, you know, visitors will be paying this fee, so why should I care about this, Eric?

And that's the same thing when you go back to the marijuana tax.

If I'm not buying recreational marijuana, I don't care about the tax either.

But a lot of people that have Airbnbs, they call the newspaper, they say that they have to call the police all the time and wait on the police to get there to do something.

They're having these wild parties and things like that.

So this might be a way to regulate it, but I don't know how effective it's going to.

Why would somebody vote no on this, Michael?

Somebody would vote no on it because they probably have a dog in the fight.

And I got like an Airbnb.

I can all a dollar 50 right now as a free own in Kansas City.

This will go up to $3 a night.

There will be a 7.5% tax on these rentals.

Who actually pays?

That, though, is that actually going to be the owner of the Airbnb property or you coming into that Airbnb property?

You're coming in as a visitor.

To.

Be responsible for that $3 fee and the 7.5 tax.

Okay.

So you a family member coming in from the United Kingdom or from the East Coast or for instance, they are going to be hit with this?

Yes, but it is going to like we said, it is going to put people on par with those hotels.

And so that's supposed to even the playing field, so to speak, with all of the other accommodations that are happening in the city.

Now, what happens when you have an election for an office and there are no candidates?

No, we're not tied to a building.

We're attached to our community right here.

Let them say what they have to say.

And you will hear, though, there's been huge controversies over school closings.

I'm never ending debates in schools over how they teach everything from race to gender.

Hardly anyone is running for school board in Kansas City next week.

Two newcomers are running totally unopposed and in a third seat, not one person bothered to file, which means if you write in your name on Tuesday, you could be the newest member of the Kansas City, Missouri School Board, which will end.

Up as Mickey Mouse all of a sudden will be on the school board because you'll have five people decide to.

Jokingly put that name on the ballot.

How is it that absolutely no one is interested in running?

Eric?

Well, it's a lot of things.

A lot of people are disengaged now because the school board seems to be stable and it's going in the right direction.

They have a new superintendent, a school.

People have a lot of faith and confidence.

And I think one of the issues was that people decided not to run for reelection and it was kind of a hush hush kind of thing there where a lot of people didn't know about it.

And then when the filing time came up, realized nobody had filed for those seat.

Two school board members get paid leave.

They do not I mean, they might get their meals, but, you know, city council members do get paid.

Yeah, I was looking at that.

Yeah, over $70,000 a year.

So that might not explain why you have almost 40 candidates running for city council and barely anyone running for school board.

Well, you know, city council is exciting and you have an impact in many ways.

I think the school board is also equally important.

But let's face it, Nick, school boards have become catalysts for fanatical parents.

You have these meetings that go past midnight and you're getting screamed at what sensible person would put up with that?

I believe Mark Twain said the most thankless job in American politics is to be on and be on a member of a school board.

And the interesting thing about this is this is happening.

This absence of people running for school board in Kansas City is just juxtaposed against the drive by some conservative groups to concentrate on fielding candidates and campaigns for local school boards because of the things that we just talked about in terms of trying to drive the agenda on school districts.

I'm not, by the way, Kansas school board members also by law, are not allowed to be paid.

Eric But by contrast, Hickman Mills has a slate of candidates as well.

Raytown has a slate of candidates.

It was just interesting that Kansas City, in that particular district, everybody the two candidates are writing it.

On Tuesday, Kansas City voters will decide whether Quinton Lucas deserves four more years as mayor.

They'll also be deciding half the seats on the city council.

Some of its best known members, like Catherine Shields, had the whole to his alone, are all term limited and will be heading out the door.

That means there will be an explosion of new faces coming to city Hall.

My colleague Mary Sanchez says there's currently not one Latino Council member that could change as a result of this election.

What other trends should we be watching out for, Lynn?

Well, one thing to watch for is the North Land Council representatives versus south.

There's been a lot of geographic friction on the current council.

We'll see if that continues.

Another thing to watch is there are a number of candidates who are very pro-police and pro law enforcement, and then there are other candidates who are pro social services and really opposed to a super powerful police department.

And so that might depending on who gets seated, that might be something to watch.

And I agree with Leon.

I did a debate with the League of Women Voters, and it was just different watching people north of the river and their attitude about police versus people south of the river and their attitude about police.

Some people say that Mayor Quinton Lucas, his life at city hall will become more miserable as a result of this election.

Michael.

I think there's a possibility here that it could be very interesting in a second term for him.

Let's see how he handles and deals with the new members of the city council.

He'll get a big if he beats Clay Chastain, though.

Yes, Glenn.

Well, I was going to say Sly James had the same the same dynamic in his second term.

He had a more contentious council.

The other thing to watch and let's make sure that people know the April 4th election is the primary.

There's a general election in June.

They better get a high turnout in June or there's going to be a very low threshold for initiative petitions.

And Sly James found in his second term, he was constantly dealing with these frivolous and stupid petition initiatives that require elections.

But we are we are dealing with triple digit potential homicides again this year, perhaps the deadliest year on record.

We're looking at a potential downtown bull talk.

We have a reparations commission that wants to be working.

Lots of contentious issues.

Can we expect through the roof turnout on Tuesday, Eric?

No, not really.

I think it'll be the norm anywhere from 8 to 12%.

Turnout prediction for Tuesday.

Michael, in that same range, 8 to 12, maybe as high as 15%, although I doubt it.

It doesn't seem like the voters are that engaged.

I've I've moderated a couple of forums as well.

And you see the same people turning out.

At them and some forums.

There are actually more candidates on the stage.

They're actually audience members to talk to them already.

Kynala Phillips and Lynne HORSLEY, thank you so much for being with us on This Week in Review.

Eric Wesson and Michael Mahoney, thanks for the insights from you.

Ahead of Election Day, the top race on the ballot is for mayor of Kansas City.

But Quinton Lucas breaking with tradition and refusing to debate his only opponent.

His opponent isn't happy about it.

He joins us next.

We end the week with some sobering crime numbers.

Kansas City is now outpacing not only last year's murder count, but 2020, which was the deadliest year in the city's history.

When he was first elected, Quinton Lucas vowed to end triple digit homicides in Kansas City.

It's only gotten worse.

Lucas won't debate his opponent before Election Day, But here to talk crime and other pressing issues in the city is the second name that will appear next to Mayor Lucas on Tuesday's ballot.

Clay Chastain, it is very good to have you with us.

But I have to say, I have a huge empathy for the underdog, which is why I wanted you on this program.

However, are you testing our patience?

You moved to Virginia over a decade ago and yet you keep coming back.

You ran for mayor against slight change.

You got 6% of the vote.

You ran against Quinton Lucas.

You got 1% of the vote.

What convinces you that this time is going to be different?

I'm a glutton for punishment.

The difference here is that I'm really trying this time.

I'm ready to move here full time.

My legal obligation is included in Virginia so I can be a full time resident and mayor.

That's that's number one thing.

And I've shown a commitment to this city for a long time.

You know that.

And we saved the train station from planned demolition when a light rail election in 2006, the corrupt government overturned it, or we'd be riding light rail and connecting to the new airport right now without rail system.

So the visions that I've had for this city have not been accomplished.

Well, one of your big visions for the city is a monorail that will go from Union Station to KC Airport.

Yet they've already just said we we're going to kill off the plans to have a streetcar going from Kansas City to the stadiums because it costs too much money.

This would be a route two and a half times as this this monorail.

People don't understand.

And they've written the Disney monorail.

A lot of people love that.

But that's 50 year old technology.

So you imagine how nice the monorail is now quite efficient, fast and it's cost effective.

How would you pay for it?

We're going to extend the existing bus tax rates and bus tax when it expires next year.

The bus system will still have a half cent and we'll take that $0.38.

That's our local match.

We're going to try to get $1,000,000,000 plus of federal infrastructure money because Congress approved that infrastructure bill.

Right.

And if we don't get it, other cities are going to get it.

So we have to have a plan approved by the voters that this plan with the monorail, the Greenway system, you're going to be able to get around the entire city without a car if you choose to.

And you can save $12,000 a year, according to the triple AA as to what a car costs people.

So that's going to be a major attraction for this city.

I'm selling point to get young people to move here because a lot of young people don't even want a car anymore.

They want to live in a clean, green car and congested city.

We get those people in there.

We then we have we build our tax base up, our revenue base.

So we are sustainable.

We are not sustainable.

Mayor, though, you just one vote on the city council, you have to attract at least six other people to come with you.

Why would anybody on the council that's not the only way we can go at it.

Remember the old petition drive?

I can do a petition drive while I'm the mayor of Kansas City.

If I have trouble with the council, I'll take my vision right to the people.

Is it going to be hard?

Do you have the right temperament, though, to be the mayor of Kansas City when you've spent the last few years, exactly the time you've been trying to oust members of the city council by doing recall elections against them, why would they support you on anything?

This is a new group of people, you know, and I met some last night in the forum over at Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, which the mayor ducked that debate to.

His name was right there next to mine.

He didn't show up.

And these people I like these people.

No, Miss Robinson never met her for Ms.. Hall.

Mr. Ellington, they seem like very common sense people.

I don't think they hold anything against me.

So I think we're going to have a new they'll see me as very they'll see another side of me.

They haven't seen the star points paints me as this angry activist unwilling to work with people.

I'm very my my daughters love me.

They mean I'm they think I'm cool and easy to get along with.

So my kids think I'm easy to get along with, but my crew may not think that.

But, you know, I mentioned the statistics on crime, for instance.

You know, what would you do differently?

Well, first of all, he's been a completely ineffective mayor in terms of keeping his promise to end the homicide crisis, as you pointed out, early.

So he he didn't keep his promise.

He has no vision.

He has no plan to do so.

He's just running saying, well, I'm optimistic.

He says, I've got a specific plan passed, the safety initiative, I call it.

We're going to work with the new police chief, Chief Gray's I heard I read her interview with Channel nine.

Very smart woman.

She's right on the money.

We need to work together.

Accountability.

She's going to have, I think, in part very good policing policies.

She'll do her job.

I'll do my job as the mayor.

We're going to start investing economic, educational, transportation, resources into the disadvantaged parts of this city, which we haven't done for decades.

That's why it's manifested itself in the homicides.

Lucas James Glitz, glitz, glitz, glitz, downtown glitz, shiny projects, they don't improve the entire living environment for the people that live here.

What about opening an airport terminal ahead of schedule?

That's what Quint DeLuca says he's done making bus service free, bringing the NFL draft and a World Cup to Kansas City during his watch.

The only thing we haven't had is the Olympics.

Will we be getting people from around the world coming here and calling up Uber to get to the stadiums or riding a diesel bus?

We've got the monorail.

Beautiful is going to come in at floor level to the new terminal.

It's going to solve all the parking congestion problems that Kasai people are going to use it as a reverse commute in the north lane.

All those people that work south of the river now and live up in the north land, we're going to be able to get people in the inner city up to jobs up there that they have a staffing problem.

Right, too.

So the monorail is a perfect solution to make this airport the most convenient, accessible, greatest airport in America.

If they'll just listen to Clay Chastain Now, would there be a down down pole park if there was a mayor?

Clay Chastain Did you see this week a Kansas side architectural firm now putting forward a rival design plan for what, a new home for the Kansas City Royals would look like?

Not if they in the I don't know if he's a billionaire billionaire owner.

Mr. Sherman.

I'm sure he he he he he's not concerned where his next meals coming from.

He's got millionaire owner ballplayers.

We've got taxpayers that are taxed out here in this city and barely making it.

We're not going to put the burden of building that stadium on the backs of the taxpayers.

He wants to extend that three cent stadium tax.

No, not for glitz, not for millionaire owner, billionaire owners, millionaire players.

Would you be okay with them leaving Kansas City?

I wouldn't be okay with it, but I'm not going to we're not going to keep them here with tax dollars if they want to do it on their own dime.

And we can maybe provide the the the setting and provide the groundwork for it.

We can do that.

But we're not going to tax and people any more for glitz in this city.

Are you willing to commit on this program right now if you fail to win this mayor's race, this is it You won't run for office again in Kansas City.

Claim they're taking all my fun away.

Wild, don't run.

Yes, because I've have reached an age and a point in time where I'm really going for it.

This time.

I've got my vision out there and I think people are going to brace it.

I think they're going to see me as a decisive, effective mayor that's going to do the right thing.

This would be.

This would be it.

Yes.

Okay.

And that includes no more light rail, no more monorail, because that's one of the reasons I ran for mayor is is my ex-wife actually sat me down.

She said, Clay, you know, Lucas is going to do what he did to the one in 2019.

If you turn it, he's going to kill it again.

He doesn't want it competing with the streetcar, so you might as well run for mayor.

That's the only way you're going to get your vision before the people and is getting it approved as to be the mayor of this city.

Maverick, transit activist, now candidate for Kansas City Mayor Clay Chastain, thanks for joining us.

Ahead of Tuesday's election next week, Missouri Secretary of State John Ashcroft joins us as he gets ready to strip libraries of state funding if they offer prurient books to children.

We're also joined by First Amendment experts as we dissect local book bans and the efforts to block conservative speakers from university campuses on both sides of state line.

Would you join us?

I'm Nick Haynes.

From all of us here at Kansas City, PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.