Missouri should give KC to Kansas...

Interesting editorial recently published in the KC Star argues that a lot of the problems experienced in the KC Metro area could be solved by Kansas City Missouri becoming part of the State of Kansas.

Kansas City Could Flourish by Erasing its State Line Mode by Shirley Christian

I give some examples of her reasoning, and my responses...

The reality now is that nearly 2 million people live and work in a circular space spread over various counties in two states. We would be much more successful, and have much less to argue about, if the main parts of the metropolitan area, including close-in suburbs, were all in the same state.

This is 100% on the mark. Having a major city such as KC sitting up against a state line means that the people in Kansas (the side with the higher population in the Metro area) don't have any legal polictical say in what happens in KC. Yet, KC continually looks for ways to tap into that money. Look at the KC City Income Tax. The only reason that exists is because of all the workers from the Kansas side working in KC. Sure, the tax is applied to everyone working in KC, but if the Metro area were in Kansas it would be unnecessary.

Self interest is the reason the entire metropolitan area should be in Kansas. The Kansas capital is an hour away, and Kansas has no major metropolitan area (sorry, Wichita, it's true). Missouri has St. Louis, which will always have more control over Missouri state affairs than Kansas City, but a unified Kansas City would wield great influence in Topeka.

Yep... St. Louis gets the money and attention from Jeff City, while KC gets sloppy seconds and reprimands. St. Louis is also a "border" city, but the difference is that St.Louis and the Missouri side of that border have the population centers, and the higher per capita income. Here in the KC Metro area, it is Johnson County Kansas that holds those cards.

One thing I've never seen mentioned in articles around here is a reduced role for county government. Whether it is on the Missouri side or the Kansas side, county government needs to become smaller and less intrusive. As far as I am concerned, the only things a county should be involved in are:

1. Birth and death certifications.
2. Marriage and divorce certifications.
3. Real Estate (registering deeds)
4. County Courts to settle disputes from above mentioned categories.

That's it... none of the other thousand things they have their paws in out here. In Massachusetts, being a county commissioner is akin to being a janitor at the high school... except the janitor has more clout. Cities and towns take care of everything, from schools to roads, and everything in between. Massachusetts is basically a state full of democrats, yet they have a lot fewer layers of government than out here in the heart of republican country... and that truly is shocking to me. The more politicians involved, the more crap the average voter has to wade through to get to the real issues.