How Schlitterbahn is sucking our local economy dry

Schlitterbahn is a Texas corporation that is building a new waterpark near the speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. The project is expected to cost more than $700 million dollars and the development has already been promised more than $200-million dollars in Kansas STAR revenue bonds.

When they first started talking about building this 5 years ago, it was promised the project would put local construction people to work. But like so many other times, it seems that once the public financing is secured, those promises go out the window. The Kansas City construction manager that was working on Schlitterbahn is now out of it and Schlitterbahn is bringing in a construction company out of Texas called Henry & Sons, which just happens to be owned by the same family that owns Schlitterbahn!

Henry & Sons has brought in workers from Texas instead of putting our local craftspeople to work. That means when those workers are paid, they’ll be taking the money back with them to Texas, instead of the wages going to local people who help support Kansas City’s economy. We think if hundreds of millions of dollars in public tax bonds are going to be handed out, then local workers should be used on the job.

Unemployment in the Kansas City metro area has been hovering around 9-percent for all of 2009. That’s more than 90,000 people out of work during the month of May alone. Construction on this project is still in the early stages, so this is one out-of-state windfall we can still do something about!!!

Kansas City, Kansas, city officials said the project would be the start of a new chapter in the life of this community. Well, Chapter 1 could be called “Broken Promises”. Let’s try and make Chapter 2 – “More Kansas City Construction Workers Back on the Job”.

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT LOCAL WORKERS BY NOT PATRONIZING THIS WATERPARK