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

Observers of Jackson County government have long suspected that a significant amount of revenue from the county’s COMBAT sales tax has been spent on things not related to the organization’s missions of fighting drug use and drug-related crime.

With Wednesday’s release of a report by a national accounting firm, the proof is in. It shows that two county executives — the current one and the one in prison, as well as the current prosecutor — have fished in the waters of the $20-million-a-year revenue stream to pay salaries and buy items not related to fighting drug-related crime.

Among other things, funds from the COMBAT (Community Backed Anti-Crime Tax) program have gone toward…

:: Buying an SUV for County Executive Frank White’s chief of staff, Caleb Clifford.

:: White’s salary of at least $145,000 a year.

:: A home giveaway program that former (and now-imprisoned) County Executive Mike Sanders sponsored each year.

:: Buying furniture for Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker’s office.

:: Putting on the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.

:: Repairs at the courthouses in Kansas City and Independence and the Jackson County Detention Center.

(Regarding the last point, I’d like to know what repairs COMBAT money went toward at the downtown courthouse because the place is a certifiable dump. If you doubt what I say, just go down there some day and step in the front door and take a look at the dingy, dimly lighted lobby.)

As bad as the contents of this report are, it does hold out hope for improvement. For one thing, now that the scum has risen to the surface, the County Legislature can begin holding the county executive, the prosecutor, program administrators and others who have access to COMBAT money to stricter account.

Also, even though Baker misappropriated some COMBAT money (office furniture), it is good news that her office now has control over the money. The Legislature, which for good reason does not have an iota of trust in Frank White, stripped that power away from the county executive’s office a year or two ago.

To her credit, Baker requested the accounting-firm review, even though she had to know it would show her hands were not altogether clean. (At the same time, she didn’t have much of a choice because the county’s legislative auditor had earlier uncovered significant problems.)

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The political upshot of this is that voters probably will hold White responsible.

Voters first approved the quarter-cent COMBAT sales tax in 1989, and they have overwhelmingly voted to renew it several times, including in November 2016. It does not come up for renewal again until 2027, by which time this report will be long forgotten and voters will likely vote to renew it again.

White, on the other hand, would come up for re-election in 2022, if he chooses to seek run again. This latest gambol in the mud — combined with the assessment brouhaha, the falling-apart jail and his notorious propensity for keeping public business under wraps — may well cost him his job.

It appears to me almost any good Democratic candidate would have an excellent chance to wrest the Democratic nomination from him in three years. If he ran and survived the primary, however, he would be heavily favored to beat any Republican challenger. Jackson County, after all, remains a Democratic stronghold.

At this point, I have my doubts that White will run again. Since he got re-elected, the news has been all bad, and he has alienated tens of thousands of voters. It’s hard to tell what goes through politicians’ mind, however. More than a few delude themselves and think the public will continue to embrace them regardless of what they do.

White, with the cheers from his days as a Major League all-star still echoing in his head, might just think he can pull out a win in the bottom of the ninth.