JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

It’s a great day in jimmycsays land and also in the world of the Committee to Stop a Bad Cure, the campaign committee I registered last month to fight the proposed new half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research” in Jackson County.

(I put quotes around that term every time I use it because it sounds so weird, and a lot of people don’t know what it means.)

After several weeks of preparation, the committee’s website, http://www.stopabadcure.org, went live this afternoon.

I invite you to check it out and give me your comments and suggestions.

Our committee is now 27 members strong, including me. All are residents of Jackson County. (They are listed on the website.)

In addition to the website, we have purchased billboards, which will go up next week in strategic locations. If finances allow, we will advertise in The Star and have yard signs and fliers.

The committee has now raised and spent about $4,200. I have contributed all but about $300 of that.

If you would like to contribute and help pay specifically for KC Star ads (newspaper readers vote) and printed materials, send checks to the committee at 1209 W. 64th Terr., KCMO 64113.

I am the committee treasurer, and that’s my home address.

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We are up against big bucks. As of last week, the Committee for Discoveries, Treatments and Cures, the committee working for the tax, had raised $780,000. Already, they are mailing four-page, full-color brochures. (If you are a frequent voter in Jackson County, you can expect to get a brochure almost every day in the final days leading up to the election.)

As of last week, the committee for cures had received 17 contributions of $10,000 or more, accounting for all committee revenue.

Here is a list of the contributors:

— Wagstaff & Cartmell law firm, $10,000
— Husch Blackwell law firm, $10,000
— Irvine O. Hockaday Jr., former Hallmark Cards c.e.o., two contributions of $10,000 each
— Robert Kipp, former Kansas City city manager and former Crown Center Development president, $50,000.
— Tom McDonnell, retired DST c.e.o., $25,000
— Dr. L. Patrick James, board member of the Kansas city Area Life Sciences Institute, $10,000
— St. Luke’s Health System, $10,000
— KCP&L, $25,000
— Polsinelli law firm, $10,000
— John Sherman, chairman and c.e.o. of Inergy LP, $100,000
— Hallmark Global, $100,000
— J.E. Dunn Construction, $100,000
— The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City,  two contributions of $100,000 each
— Lockton Insurance, $10,000
— Donald Hall, $100,000

Note: Missouri Ethics Commission disclosure reports do not indicate if the $100,000 contribution from Donald Hall came from Donald Sr. or Donald Jr. Both are members of the Civic Council, an organization of the area’s top corporate and legal executives. The Civic Council is the money and power behind the push for the tax increase.

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Those contributions are eye-popping, aren’t they?

You need to know this, however: Those contributors realize that if they can foist this tax onto the taxpayers, they themselves will not get hit up for much bigger amounts to help fund the medical research program privately.

Privately, of course, is how the bulk of the money should be raised — from corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals.

It’s obvious from these contributions that oodles of private money is out there waiting to be tapped.

But in this case, as in many others before it, the sponsors decided they would prefer to have the taxpayers carry the load. They’ll be trying to fool just enough people to get this passed on Nov. 5

I say, let’s cram it down their throats, Jackson Countians.