The Columbia Heart Beat
Columbia, Missouri's All-Digital, All-ternative News Source!
COLUMBIA SCOURGE: Malcolm Redmon beating up Our Town once again?
After 11 years of terror, when is the Law going to put this guy away for good?
COLUMBIA, 2/22/12 (Beat Byte) --
If a jury convicts Malcolm Redmon of assault, thank our dysfunctional courts and prison system for contributing to Columbia's latest bullet-riddled spree.
Redmon was arrested Sunday
in connection with a week-long series of gunshot incidents stretching from Boone Tavern to Chuck E. Cheese that had the entire community -- once again -- on edge.
Modern-Day Dillinger
A 28-year-old
modern-day John Dillinger
, Redmon has been in out of the slam for over a decade, becoming Public Enemy #1 in 2008 after separate shooting sprees that
locked down Grant Elementary School
and left two
people injured on Columbia's Park Avenue
.
His history makes the Missouri Department of Corrections look like a vendor for
well-oiled revolving doors.
"I was infuriated reading about
Malcolm Redmon
, the dangerous convict with a violent past
who was allowed parole after two shootings, stealing, and drug traffickin...
CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE'S WIFE: Urged cheating in online Columbia Tribune poll
COLUMBIA, 2/18/12 (Beat Byte) -- A February 4 Face...
NEW CITIZENS GROUP: Opposes blight decree, supports community involvement, investment
CiViC seeks accountable government, and an abiding...
WITH THE GHOSTS OF SEGREGATION IN COLUMBIA, MISSOURI: Two Visionary Spirits Find Rest
An artistic icon's gift to Columbia, Missouri
M ontg...
BOOK REVIEW: Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World
An adventure across our strange, beautiful and tot...
LANDLORDS AGAINST CRIME SUMMIT: To return for third year
COLUMBIA, 2/15/12 (Beat Byte) --
A
standing-room-...
DEVELOPERS UNVEIL: Huge new subdivision next to Battle High School
New schools, new park will anchor hundreds of new ...
"CONSPIRACY THEORISTS": Trib publisher rebukes blight opponents
Waters ignores recent history
,
labels concerned cit...
CoMoCam: The Nimble Hack Man takes on Mizzou
Latest
PAUL STURTZ: And The Case of the Busted Busker
COLUMBIA, 2/10/12 (Beat Byte) --
A months-long skirmish betw...
THE EMPRESS AND THE SILVER FOX: And the battle for downtown Columbia's soul
An argument between two leadership groups takes on populist ...
The Great BoCo Property Tax Scandal
PHYLLIS CHASE: Boffo Developer Tax Breaks Prompt Final Request
 |
| Chase |
COLUMBIA (ARCHIVE) -- A Columbia Heart Beat story about huge property tax breaks for well-healed land developers prompted former Columbia Public Schools (CPS) superintendent Phyllis Chase (left) to inquire about the issue on August 4th, the day before she announced her retirement.
Parents and patrons of the district had emailed Chase asking for answers about this easily abused, little-known tax bonanza.
The Columbia Heart Beat reported on an 18.2 acre parcel in Thornbrook, complete w/cul-de-sac and stubbed in utilities that the City of Columbia has zoned for residential single family homes (R1), but which county assessor Tom Schauwecker calls Farmland (FA).
The parcel yielded all of $50.86 in 2007 property taxes.
Controversial CrossCreek gets into the act, too. A commercially-zoned 13.9 acre parcel on that site netted only $31.50 in property taxes last year, thanks to its farmland designation.
Schauwecker's agricultural designations yield a two-fold tax whammy -- a vastly lower appraised value based on "soil grade" instead of market value and the lowest assessment rate permitted by law. Chase questioned the practice in an email to senior staffers, school board members, and concerned parents. READ THE REST!
Parents and patrons of the district had emailed Chase asking for answers about this easily abused, little-known tax bonanza.
The Columbia Heart Beat reported on an 18.2 acre parcel in Thornbrook, complete w/cul-de-sac and stubbed in utilities that the City of Columbia has zoned for residential single family homes (R1), but which county assessor Tom Schauwecker calls Farmland (FA).
The parcel yielded all of $50.86 in 2007 property taxes.
Controversial CrossCreek gets into the act, too. A commercially-zoned 13.9 acre parcel on that site netted only $31.50 in property taxes last year, thanks to its farmland designation.
Schauwecker's agricultural designations yield a two-fold tax whammy -- a vastly lower appraised value based on "soil grade" instead of market value and the lowest assessment rate permitted by law. Chase questioned the practice in an email to senior staffers, school board members, and concerned parents. READ THE REST!
Recent
Book Beat
The Firecrackers of LilliputShosha Mordechai, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, is the Vatican's only living witness to the life of a man being considered for sainthood.
"Remarkable...I could not stop reading."
-- Stephen D. Solender, president emeritus of the United Jewish Communities and the North American Council for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews