Corporate Welfare, Fortune 500 Style

Ok, it’s time to STOP the insanity and demand equal protection under the law! What a quaint idea.  The most egregious affront to equal protection is corporate welfare through tax incentives/subsidies.These incentives/subsidies are “raining” down like spring showers (downpours) onto the biggest of the big companies coming to Kansas and specifically, to Johnson County.

First it was the Panasonic lithium battery plant, which since 2022has received commitments of nearly $8 billion in subsidies to locate at the old Sunflower Ammo Plant in De Soto as follows:

$829 million, Governor Kelly and our Republican controlled legislature, which included sales tax exemption on construction materials ($200million in savings)

$202 million, De Soto property tax incentive through a TIF District

$2 million, De Soto for road improvements,

$60 million, KDOT for road improvements

$15 million, Johnson County for the new fire station and other infrastructure costs.

$6.8 billion, federal tax credits (dependent on number of batteries produced)

Grand total of $7.908 BILLION

$7.908 BILLION for 4,000 jobs or a cost of just shy of $2 million for each job created. Kind of makes your head spin, doesn’t it?  Maybe we should have just had a lottery and given 4,000 families $2 million each, probably would have had more of an economic impact.

But wait, suddenly the winds propelling the EV revolution have shifted to head winds. President Trump with a swipe of his pen has put a HUGE hole in the green dream boat.  The Biden green scam mandates requiring 50% of cars sold in the U.S. to be EV by 2030 have evaporated like a morning mist.  Gone,just gone along with the projected demand for EV lithium batteries…oops!

According to the April 28^th Hechinger Report, De Soto Mayor Rick Walker stated, “Even if Panasonic shuttered their doors before they open, we’re not going to go bankrupt.” Wow,that’s a pretty big hole in the 2022 song and dance of economic billions coming to Johnson County because of Panasonic. Whatever is Panasonic’s fate THE great green dream in De Soto is and will continue to be extremely costly to YOU and me, Kansas taxpayers. Link to Hechinger Report: https://hechingerreport.org/colleges-partnered-with-an-ev-battery-factory-to-train-students-and-ignite-the-economy-trumps-clean-energy-war-complicates-their-plans/

Butwait, Governor Kelly, on April 21^st gave another whale of a company a$154 million bribe to come to Kansas. $154 million of YOUR tax dollars.  This time Kansas (along with Overland Park)is whoring after Fiserv, a Fortune 500 financial services company with 44,000employees worldwide.

Last year Fiserv relocated their global headquarters from Brookfield, Wisconsin to downtown Milwaukee…a 12-mile move. Naturally, the State of Wisconsin and Milwaukee gave them tax incentives,I guess to steal the tax base from Brookfield? Here in the KC metro its Kansas stealing companies from Missouri or vice versa.  We call it the border wars. Supposedly a cease fire was signed in 2019 by Kansas Governor Kelly and Missouri Governor Parsons.  Apparently, that cease fire agreement has been shredded with the current fight over which state can give the Chiefs(although it does seem that the Chiefs have decided to stay in their current location) and the Royals the most tax dollars to land them.

But,back to Fiserv. In 2022 their earnings were $13.1 billion and BTW Fiserv has a senior VP of global tax incentives, a very important position since every incentive tax dollar goes to corporations’ bottom line.  Out of our pockets and into theirs.

So, Fiserv is going to move into 6500 and 6550 Sprint Parkway, you remember Sprint?  In 1997 Sprint was the beginning of Overland Park going down the dark, costly road of tax incentives. They gave Sprint 50% 10-year property tax abatement (as individual buildings were built)over a 20-year period.  Also, Sprint paid no sales tax on construction materials for their sprawling campus.

Don’t you wish your property tax bill was cut in half and you didn’t have to pay sales tax?  Taxes for thee, but not for me.

Now, 28years later comes ANOTHER company begging for subsidies and Kansas hands Fiserv $154 million. Adding to the honey pot, OP is rebating 40% of Fiserv’s property taxes collected for OP’s, JoCo’s and Blue Valley Recreation’s (I guess they don’t need these tax dollars?) portion for 10 years.  More money for the corporate bottom line.  The question: will the Sprint Campus (now Aspiria – as in give me an aspirin, these tax incentives are giving me a headache) EVER pay their fair share of property tax?

And so,the continuing saga of what company is going to suck up YOUR tax dollars. It’s like watching reruns…remember those?

Charlotte O’Hara
Republican for Kansas Governor, 2026