TDD Views Failure to Provide Financials as Small "Technicality"

Hello everyone.  I hope you're having a great (dry) day.

This morning, you'll likely read or hear about the latest discussions between the Neosho TDD and the City of Neosho.  In what should have been a 10 minute meeting this past Tuesday turned into a 2-hour ambush to once again belittle the City Manager and the city council for our decision to NOT support new projects inside the Neosho TDD.

For the record, the issue at hand was one of oversight, not opposition.  For months, the city Manager and others inside the city had requested basic financial data from the NTDD to show the district could afford the new proposed project.  Unlike projects completed to date, the proposed extension of Kodiak Road north to Maple Dr. was never part of the original plan presented to the public during MoDOT's May 28, 2014 meeting at the Neosho Lampo building.

Wanting to ensure the NTDD could afford the new project, the city council unanimously voted back in March (and again in May) to request some basic financial information from the NTDD.  It should be noted that the NTDD had already stated in their court filing that "...[n]either the funding nor development of the proposed Second Additional Transportation Projects will impair the District’s ability to repay any liabilities...."  Our position was simple:  let us see the data that was compiled to make that assertion.

What was the response from the NTDD?  Nothing.  Silence.  No response.  No reply.  When asked this week why they didn't take five minutes out of their day to reply and give us the financial information, they told use they weren't required to and that our request was "unreasonable".  What?  When pressed more, one NTDD board member, Gene Schwartz, said not giving the financial data was a "little technicality."  That's not an honest answer.

When ANY taxing entity describes their own failure and refusal to provide basic financial data as "a little technicality", it should raise a number of flags.  The city's desire to review financial records before endorsing a plan to spend more taxpayer money was not only reasonable, it was a responsible act I'd expect of any elected official.

I'm disappointed the project wasn't approved, but that outcome rests solely on the shoulders of the NTDD.  A simple reply to a basic request was all that was required.  I hope the TDD will reconsider their position.  There is still time to make this happen.  But it all starts by answering the most basic of questions:  can you afford it?

MODOT