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MAY 2023 • VOLUME 49, NO. 5
Talk of the Town 7 In the News/Correspondent Business News and Legislative Updates Perspectives 4 Editor’s Note The Racialists Divide by Joe Sweeney 9 Between the Lines
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The crowd in favor of bringing new green space to Downtown would do well to consider nearby park usage. by Jack Cashill
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11 Reflections
As inflation rocks consumers, local and state taxing entities are getting a boost. by Dennis Boone
Features
12 In a Nutshell
13 Feeling a Draft
Special Reports 17 Best Companies to Work For Innovative approaches to compen
Here We Go Again? by Ken Herman
The NFL draft in late April thrust Kansas City—again—into the national conversation. 14 40 Under Forty Awards Back under a roof for the first time
Business & Commerce 56 Wealth Management
sation, benefits programs and workspace design make these 18 companies stand out among regional employers.
since 2019, the 40 Under Forty awards celebration was an overdue success.
New Market Tax Credits aren’t just good opportunities for investors; they benefit underserved communities, as well. by Bill Dana
17 Best Companies to Work For
35 The Ingram’s 100
The labor shortage? Not for these compa nies: Large, small and in between, these 18 organizations have workplace design that attracts the best and brightest. Once again, the importance of health care and agribusiness shows up among the biggest organizations operating in the Kansas City region. By Dennis Boone
For a 13th year, we bring you the big gest organizations—non-profit and for-profit—in the Kansas City region, measured by their top-line revenues.
Leads & Lists
35 The Ingram’s 100
53 Top Area
48 Construction Report
Commercial Realtors
From supply chain issues and their effect on industrial real estate to trends in commercial and retail brokerage, there is much that broker executives in this area see as overall positives.
58 Top Area General Contractors 60 Top Engineering Firms
48 Forging New Links
Ranked by the number of licensed engineers
Slowly but surely, the nation’s supply chain is being rebuilt. But it still has a long way to go. 51 Weathering the Storm Commercial real estate’s office and retail silos have been roundly battered in recent years, but the scene in Kansas City has some positives. By Dennis Boone 54 Q&A with … Aaron Mesmer Block Real Estate’s senior vice president
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assesses trends in commercial real estate across the Kansas City market.
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a division of HTLF Bank
Local Bank. Local President.
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Will Fox
Congratulations Will. Commission, and The University of Kansas School of Business Finance Advisory Board. named President Will has more than 20 years of banking experience to draw from, a lifelong knowledge of the Kansas City market and an established network of local business leaders. He is dedicated to keeping the client experience central to all priorities and giving back to the community. Fox serves on the boards of many local organizations, including Blue Valley Educational Foundation, Kansas City Metropolitan Crime
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THE LEADERSHIP EDITION | 40 UNDER FORTY | ALL EYES ON KC: NFL DRAFT & KCI
EDITOR’S NOTE
by Joe Sweeney
The Racialist’s Divide
Ingrams.com | April 2023
I grew up near the Troost divide and attended St. Elizabeth’s grade school at 75th and Main, and the block we grew up on included mostly white Catholic and Jewish families. Between school, 3&2 baseball, days spent at Tower Park and swimming at the former Jewish Community Center, I made friends with many kids—white, black and in between. In high school I’d occasionally carpool with Stefan Hughes, who hailed from east of Highway 71 and whose mom, Mamie, is a social activist well known across Kansas City. Truly, a great lady. Stefan and I both played football at Rockhurst High, and became fast friends. I once told his mother that he and I surely must have been identical twins separated at birth and raised by different sets of parents. She scoffed at the notion, because she knew something about life in Kansas City that I had yet to comprehend. The kind of racism Mamie Hughes fought against for a lifetime isn’t as self-evident today as it was then. Most of the time, we speak of racism today as “systemic,” and rarely as a marker of individual behaviors. Do you really know anyone you’d describe as openly racist? I certainly don’t. This city and nation have moved forward. As that type of racial animosity has ebbed, another has risen in its place. Call its proponents not racists, but racialists . Their primary goal is to use race a as weapon, inviting discord and igniting contro versy wherever they can. They profit, personally and professionally, by stoking the flames—or even by lighting the first match. Which brings us to the April cover of Ingram’s and our 25th class of 40 Under Forty. While it did include several minorities, the group wasn’t sufficiently diverse for some. Among the critics was a one time elected official whose name would be familiar to most anyone in Kansas City, and who took to Twitter with a flair for hypocrisy and, as a past 40 Under Forty honoree, a huge lack of self-awareness. So let’s address the criteria of the program, how selections are made and how business and communities can participate more fully and help us achieve what should be a shared goal. Since its incep tion, 40 Under Forty has been about business achievement. Period. We require two things for a candidate to be considered. First, a nomination. Second, an application from that nominee himself or herself. We want to hear from them personally. Hundreds of candi dates are then considered each year for the 40 seats. We take the role of selecting them extremely serious and, yes, diversity considerations are absolutely part of the process. The chal lenge we consistently encounter is that too few qualified minorities are nominated, and some who are nominated fail to follow through with a completed application for consideration. Our job is to select the 40 most accomplished and well-rounded business leaders and citizens. I’m one vote on a diligent selection com mittee and I personally will vote for the most qualified candidate, regardless of ethnicity, gender or religion. We don’t set quotas for minority representation—everything is based on performance and merit. The subjectivity that is involved relates to candidate service
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on boards and commissions and overall contributions to our community. Various races an ethnicities have been part of the 1,000 selections since 1998. We agree: we’d like to see more diversity. But the path to achieving a higher percentage of that representation is to receive more nominations of truly qualified candidates. In good conscience, I can’t select anyone based on race or ethnicity over a more qualified and achieved candidate. That’s why our processes emphasize mea surable achievements and metrics. The selection committee will retain its standards and select the most qualified applicants, and we’ll pursue new avenues to solicit a candidate field that looks like Kansas City. But it can’t be a one-way street. We invite those most vocal about diversity issues to help us address it. The sad part about the Twitter feud that erupted last month is that the origi nal author—like every other 40 Under Forty honoree going back 25 years—has a standing invitation to nominate quali fied candidates each year. Our records do not reflect a single nomination from him that would address his diversity concerns. It’s easy to throw stones. Until his kind put down the rocks and become part of the solution, they’ll remain part of the problem. I wonder if that’s precisely what he wants. It’s apparent that racial tension remains a concern today and Ingram’s team will do what we can to provide a civil and productive forum to help unify this great city.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A GREAT LEADER? Ingram’s editors have studied what it takes to be a great leader for many decades, under many extraordinary instructors. We can think of no more important initiative than to serve as stewards of the 40 Under Forty program, and to dedicate efforts each year to research hundreds of the region’s most accomplished young leaders and to introduce several of the best to our readers. Submit your nominations at Ingrams.com/Nominate
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Ingram’s is honored to be the founder and serve as steward of KC’s 40 Under Forty program. Considered among the finest 40 Under Forty leadership programs in America.
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IN THE NEWS
Tidbits of Business News from Around the Region
MISSOURI BUCHANAN COUNTY Athletic Complex Study
following the union of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railroad. The two companies, which had been the smallest Class I railroads, now constitute North America’s only single-line railroad stretching across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The merger agree ment struck in late 2021 set a $31 billion price tag on KCS. State Funding for South Loop
with the Crossroads Arts District. The measure must still receive final approval from both House and Senate, then be signed by Gov. Mike Parson. West Bottoms Demolition Its 2014 entry onto the National Register of Historic Places didn’t secure a future for the Ridenour-Baker Grocery Co. Building at Ninth and Mulberry in the West Bottoms: A city board has authorized demolition of the nine-story building, which has deteriorated past the point of repair. On that site, New York-based devel oper Somera Road is planning a sprawling redevelopment that, over the next decade or so, will add more than 1,200 apart ments to that neighborhood, along with office, retail, and entertainment sites.
A group billing itself as the St. Joseph Community Alliance has raised money to evaluate whether St. Joseph can support a new multi-use athletic complex. The early goal was to create a public-private part nership to finance and operate the facility, which would be a venue for sporting events and other large-audience attrac tions. The evaluation would be financed in part by the city and Buchanan County, along with the Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Bureau, and large local employers. CLAY COUNTY Liberty Hospital Eyes Partnerships Liberty Hospital’s board of trustees has announced plans to evaluate health system partnership opportunities that could entail collaborations with more than 30 local, regional, and national health systems. The hospital’s current financial and organizational strengths, officials say, make this an ideal time to pursue partnerships that can help address some of the biggest trends in health care, including the continuing move toward outpatient services over hospital stays. Officials estimate that an estimated 312,000 people flowed into the area around Union Station for three days of the NFL draft in April, beating projections of between 250,000 to 300,000. The Thursday night kickoff, with Round 1 on April 27, pulled about 125,000 to that part of Downtown before rain dampened things on Day Two, with attendance of 84,000 and 103,000 for the final selections that Saturday. The event also showcased Kansas City to 11.29 million television viewers for the opening round. KCS Now Canadian Pacific KC With the ceremonial driving of a silver railroad spike in April, Canadian Pacific Kansas City is officially in business JACKSON COUNTY The NFL Draft Impact
The effort to convert the space over I-670 in Downtown Kansas City is picking up support from the General Assembly in the form of a $20 million matching grant included in a $1.7 billion appropriations bill. That would help put a cap over the roadway to create a 4.6-acre urban park connecting the central business district Correspondent News Updates from the Capital cities Washington | GDP Growth Slows to 1.1% in Q1
According to Commerce Department figures, the U.S. economy slowed to 1.1 percent annualized growth in the first quarter of 2023 but remained strong enough to delay the onset of a formal recession. Citing a reduction in business investments it says were the result of higher interest rates, the department said growth was cut by more than half the 2.6 percent rate posted in the final quarter of 2022. Consumer spending, however, remained strong enough to keep the index in positive growth territory for three consecutive quarters; it had slipped into technical recession ter ritory in the first two quarters of 2022 before rebounding slightly. Jefferson City | $75 Million in Industrial Grants Gov. Mike Parson said the Industrial Site Development Grant Program will provide $75 million to support 15 projects across Missouri. The program, funded through the American Rescue Plan Act, was launched in December and is focused on helping communities develop shovel-ready industrial sites to support business expansion and attraction. Through the Missouri Department of Economic Development, it has awarded competitive grants to communities to fund costs related to the establishment and expansion of industrial sites. Of the $75 million available, $50 million was reserved for sites that are 1,000 acres or larger; $25 million was reserved for smaller sites. In total, the program will help develop 9,700 acres for industrial use. Topeka | No Tax Breaks Amid the Affluence The state’s coffers are uncharacteristically full as the legislative session winds down, but despite agreement from both Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and the GOP supermajority in the Capitol, it appears that no big tax cuts will be made this year. Kelly vetoed a bill that would have trimmed tax revenues by $1.4 billion through 2026. The Legislature adjourned Friday in early May without overturning the veto, leaving the state with a projected surplus of nearly $2.6 billion in 2024, as well as $1.6 billion in a separate “rainy day” fund.
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May 2023
IN THE NEWS
Tidbits of Business News from Around the Region
PLATTE COUNTY If You Build It …
LEAVENWORTH COUNTY Tonganoxie Scores Again
municipal utilities and other clients restore power after emergencies, which B&V has defined as a potential growth line. CrossFirst Enters Arizona The region’s fastest-growing bank over the past decade figures to get even bigger with CrossFirst Bank’s April acquisition of a Tucson bank that provides entry into the Arizona market. CrossFirst Bankshares, the parent, has struck a deal to buy Canyon Community Bank in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $15.1 million. With deposits of $169 million, Canyon is a fraction of its new parent’s $5.8 billion, but the strategic addition opens up another potential high growth market for the Leawood Bank. ProPharma HQ Exits KC ProPharma Group, a five-time Corporate Report 100 honoree and one of the region’s fastest-growing companies, is relocating its headquarters from Overland Park to North Carolina. The research consulting organization has leased space in Raleigh, N.C., closer to the life-sciences hub known as Research Triangle. ProPharma made Ingram’s fast-growth list each year from 2012-16, topping out at No. 22 in its debut year. Panasonic Lands Customer A Norwegian company is the first anno- unced buyer for Panasonic Energy’s electric vehicle battery plant in DeSoto, expected to begin operations in 2025. Hexagon Purus Systems USA has secured a multiyear sup- ply of the plant’s lithium-ion battery cells. The agreement calls for $43 million in initial pay ments as the plant is ramping up production. Mission Gateway Finale? A series of city extensions and accom modations for the long-delayed Mission Gateway redevelopment may be at its end: A New York ban, Metropolitan Commercial, has sued a subsidiary of the firm that owns the site in Mission, claiming developers are more than $1 million behind on their mortgage payments. The former Mission Mall site was acquired in 2005 with plans for a high-end transformation, but since then has been through a series of fits and starts that have left it in construction limbo.
A sparkling new terminal at Kansas City International Airport has produced some sparkling statistics on usage: More than 944,000 passengers arrived and departed through the $1.5 billion terminal in March, a healthy year-over-year increase of 21.3 percent. KCI hadn’t seen that level of volume since December 2019, and it was the airport’s fourth-busiest March since 2008. KCI’s biggest carrier, Southwest Airlines, said it recorded a 30 percent increase in passengers boarding outbound flights for the month. Data Center Incentives The Kansas City Council has unani 0mously signed off on a development plan and bond request that could be worth $8.2 billion in incentives by 2060 for the massive Golden Plains Technology Park. Black & Veatch subsidiary Diode Ventures and Velvet Tech Services project that the development could generate nearly $104 billion—with a “b”—over the span of the buildout. The plan calls for 16 data center buildings, with 5.5 million square feet of space, on an 882-acre site along U.S. 169 in Clay and Platte counties. KANSAS JEFFERSON COUNTY $7.5 Million Settlement Jefferson County commissioners have agreed to a $7.5 million settlement in the case of a man imprisoned for 16 years in connect- ion with a murder he didn’t commit. DNA evidence cleared Floyd Bledsoe in the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl, leading to his 2015 release. The settlement will pay him $1.5 million upfront, with the rest over a decade.
Fresh off its success in securing a new production facility for Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Tonganoxie has pulled in DSM, a global com- pany that will build a processing plant to produce a pet food premix ingredient. The company says it expects to begin construc tion in July, with roughly 28 employees when the plant goes online in the first half of 2025, producing nutritional supplements that will be sold to branded pet food lines worldwide. SHAWNEE COUNTY Washburn Tuition Break Effective this fall semester, Washburn University will roll out a pair of scholar ship programs, one of which will provide nearly tuition-free instruction for Shawnee County students from families with low to moderate incomes. The goal, officials say, is to help the area retain more talent from the ranks of the local students who account for the bulk of enrollment there. Officials from the Unified Government have paused on a plan to convert the former Cerner campus in Wyandotte County into a mixed-use development. Commissioners have delayed further deliberations for a month to answer questions on the proposal by principals Block & Co. Inc. and Genesis Realty & Development. The developers hope to turn one of the nine-story towers into apartments, leaving the other for office use and creating about 90,000 square feet of retail space. Reardon Redux Plan The former Reardon Center in Downtown Kansas City, Kan., would take on new life as apartments and retail under a proposal submitted by Willie Lanier Jr. of Lanier United. He wants to buy the site, then raze the former convention and meeting space in the 500 block of Minnesota Ave., where between 85 and 100 residential units would sit atop 7,000 square feet of first-floor retail with the same square footage for meeting space to accommodate up to 350. WYANDOTTE COUNTY Cerner Remake on Hold
JOHNSON COUNTY B&V Buys Texas Firm
Seeking to expand its reach in con struction and procurement services, as well as engineering, Black & Veatch has acquired Texas-based Bird Electric Enterprises and Bird Electric Properties, with more than 600 employees. Among the firm’s strengths is its work in helping
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BETWEEN THE LINES
Pointed Perspectives & Penetrating Punditry | by Jack Cashill
Skinny Jeans Crowd to Skin Us Once Again A mile to the south, Penn Valley Park offers a stark lesson before we remake the South Loop.
park. Watching a video of the April 11 presentation by landscape archi tect Nathan Elliott, I got the distinct impression that this is a done deal. Port KC, the Downtown Council of Kansas City, and the City of Kansas City are all in. So are any number of corporate boosters, some of whom are ponying up dollars as well as good wishes. Elliott, a principal with OJB’s San Diego office, conceded that Kansas City is new to him. So he and his col leagues began their cogitations with the question: “How can we make this a place that is authentically yours?” The answer seems to be to make it as much as possible like every other urban area manufactured for and by the skinny-jeans crowd. The South Loop website tells us as much. “Taking inspiration from urban parks such as Dallas’ Klyde Warren Park,” its authors brag, “the South Loop creates a more sustainable Downtown with a commitment to prioritize pedestrians, cyclists, and multimodal transportation.” An empty buzzword at its best, it is hard to know, in this case, what the boosters mean by “sustainable.” If the word means making life more difficult for those dependent on automobiles, they may have a point. Although boosters tell us that the park will provide a “bridge” between Power & Light and the Crossroads District, there will be at least one fewer actual bridge over I-670, which means one fewer reason to go Downtown. Cyclists and pedestrians will apparently rule the day in our rei magined city, which would be great were it not for winter, rainy days, and a population whose median age is 38 and whose median waist size is greater than its age—and getting greater by the day. As it happens, too, the wearing of skinny jeans makes cycling so
Perhaps no predilection better sums up the essence of today’s young “thought leaders” than their affection for so-called “skinny jeans.” Uncomfortable, expensive, and unattractive, these jeans shout conformity from the rooftops. Whenever I hear a wearer speak—especially if he/she/they “upspeak”—I reach for my wallet. Now these folks are asking for roughly $200 million for a park to bridge I-670, the so-called South Loop. For all their professed affection for parks, however, I have never seen a man or woman in skinny jeans in Penn Valley Park, where I walk about every other day. What I do see are people even crazier than I am, some conspicuously so. One guy, for instance, wears short shorts and goes shirtless in the middle of the winter as he practices some wild, home-grown form of martial arts. Crazy people like parks.
When I walk through the park, I always bring my shillelagh, a walking stick made from stout knotty blackthorn with a head roughly the size and density of a shot put. I wouldn’t go without it. As much as I like Penn Valley Park, I don’t trust the place entirely. The larger section of Penn Valley, east of Broadway, serves many functions, but the beautifully sculptured western section is prettier. For the stout of heart, it is the “refuge,” the “urban oasis” that civic lead ers hope the planned South Loop Park will be. Unfortunately, it is also a disgrace. Nearly as many people live in the park as hike or fish there. I am sure the
Nearly as many people live in Penn Valley Park as hike or fish there. I am sure the homeless have many virtues, but neat ness is not high among them.
homeless have many virtues, but neatness is not high among them. At its worst, the park is almost comically trashy. Lining the potentially sparkling stream are beer cans, fast-food wrappers, suitcases, shopping carts, and more discarded items of clothing than you could find in a well-stocked Goodwill store. Not long ago, I asked a park board commissioner why he and his colleagues let the park devolve into this kind of post apocalyptic messiness. He told me in all sincerity that they did not have the money to keep it clean. Apparently, though, the city does have the money, $200 million worth, to create a new park a little more than a mile away. Go figure. As envisioned, the South Loop Project will cover about a four-block-long stretch of I-670 east of Bartle Hall with a
Jack Cashill Ingram’s Senior Editor P | 816.842.9994 E | Editorial @ Ingrams.com
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the city pulls from the park board allotments to keep the general fund afloat and Penn Valley Park awash in world-class debris. The park attracts
difficult that young urbanites have switched to scooters, usually powered by lithium-ion batteries. Happily for the skinny-jean crowd, people their age, even much younger, are pleased to work the mines in places like inner Mongolia and the Congo to keep Kansas City sustainable. If “sustainable” means financially sustainable, planners need only look to Kansas City’s earlier experiences with cookie-cutter urbanization. Not too long ago, civic boosters sold the Power & Light District to the public on the premise—pause here for laughter—that it would generate enough tax revenue to pay for the bonds issued to finance it. That never happened. From Day One, even the true believers knew they had been suckered. Since it opened in 2007, the district has forever had to rely on refinancing and its general fund to make debt payments that total more than $10 million a year. Meanwhile,
If great success means sustainability, light rail is a bust. It generates nothing. The fact that skinny-jeaners could ride for free embarrassed the KCATA into making all bus service free. This model would not even strike Karl Marx as “sustainable.” The South Loopers, of course, are also keen on making their park “equitable.” If serious, they could find no better model than Penn Valley Park. The park attracts illegal immigrants from many nations, the homeless of all races, and sex hustlers of all genders. This helps explain why I have never seen a skinny-jeaned person anywhere near Penn Valley and why Elliott — surprise, surprise—failed to mention these potential park-killers even once in his presentation.
Penn Valley Park attracts illegal immigrants from many nations, homeless of all races, and sex hustlers of all genders.
illegal immigrants from many nations, the homeless of all races, and sex hustlers of all genders. bris. As much as I appreciate their optimism, Elliot and his fellow boosters see the downside of nothing. He casually referred, for instance, to the city’s “great success with the light rail.”
The views expressed in this column, which is also published online in the Heartlander, are the writer’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Ingram’s Magazine. Jack Cashill , Senior Editor, Editorial @ Ingrams.com
Your Vacation Home and Meeting Place at Pebble Bay Club and Old Kinderhook
315 Country Ridge Drive This large home includes 4 bedrooms, 10 beds, 3.5 baths, kitchen, dining . . . and much more! There’s a lot of dough rolled into this beautiful vacation rental lake home at 315 Country Ridge Dr., in more ways than one. The home was built by the Wolferman family from Kansas City, which is famous today for its gourmet English muffins. You may reserve this beautiful home as your vacation rental home at the lake. Your Home at the Lake
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including this golf course home and Cottages 21 & 22 at Old Kinderhook and the lake home and hotel suites at Pebble Bay Club. Call for Special Rates/Group Packages Reserve Your Home at the Lake 816.679.1828 ■ JSweeney @ Ingrams.com www.OzarksVacationRentals.com www.PebbleBayClub.com
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REFLECTIONS
by Dennis Boone
At the Intersection of Business and Life
Let Them Eat Cake . . . But NO Ice Cream!
In state Capitol buildings, a little inflation can be a wonderful thing for strained budgets. Last month in this space, we teed off on consumer choices that contribute to the current once-in-two-generations inflat- ionary spike. Now let’s take a little stroll down Data Dump Drive and see what’s taking place in the state capitals. My hunch is that, if you try to get as granular as we have here with quarterly tax tables provided by the Census Bureau, you’ll start to wonder why it feels like an even bigger thumb is coming down on the butcher’s scale of your monthly budget. Stick with me here, because this will get a little dense at times. Sure as shinola stinks, though, that’s precisely the response the bean-counters and lever-pullers behind the curtains are hoping for from the electorate. Slight diversionary note: One of the reasons the average taxpayer can’t get simple answers to basic questions about where the money goes is because governments at all levels have discovered the wonders of obfuscation. Municipal, county and state budget documents these days run into the hundreds of pages.
revenues jumped even more, proportionally, throwing off an additional $498.16 million. One would have to look upon public sector budgeting with the heart of a Scrooge to deny that budget authorities and elected officials in each state aren’t subject to the same cost inputs as the rest of us. They surely are. But keep this in mind: the monster is a lot bigger than just sales taxes. Property tax collections in Kansas over that same span were up 45.8 percent (from $753 million to $1.1 billion); on the Missouri side, it was 10.6 percent, but the warnings are out from county assessors that 30-percent increases are coming this year for many. (Of course, if they had any moral fiber at all, those executives would simply roll back the corresponding mill levies and provide a little hold-harmless action for homeowners, but that’s a separate rant.) Throw in the motor fuels tax, the levy on alcoholic beverages, vehicle licensing taxes and two dozen other lines, and you get Kansas going from $10.24 billion in total tax receipts to $12.86 billion (up 11.5 percent), while Missouri rocketed from $13.4 billion to $16.68 billion (up 24.48 percent). In three years. About the only good thing you can say there is that Kansas at least came in under the 15 percent infla tion rate for that span. Missouri fell a bit short of doubling it. Come on, all you fiscal conservatives in the General Assembly! Try harder next time! Think about some of those numbers the next time you want to treat your spouse and another couple to a mid-price dinner with a tab of $100—laughable, I know, because even the low-end joints command that much these days. You lay out the hundred, you play nice and dish the server a 20 percent tip. Then the ghost of Harry Truman or Alf Landon plunges a skeletal hand into your pocket for another 10 bucks, to be divided by the state, city, county and a few others who have managed to pull up a seat at your table. What can we say? Bon apetit to all who voted for this. You might consider it your just dessert.
Kansas City’s current fiscal-year budget document weighs in at a tidy 691 pages. That’s before you add in the police department’s 265 pages. Johnson County’s budget on the Kansas side is a sveldt 527 pages. Overland Park goes 344 pages with its document. The Lee’s Summit School District, which evidently hasn’t stumbled onto the benefits of such obscurity, runs a tidy 57 pages. Suitable, perhaps, for reading to your kids as a bedtime story. But back to the inflation angle. Over the past three years, you’ve had a chance to grouse about
Without lifting a legislative finger, state tax receipts are soaring by hundreds of millions of dollars.
escalating prices for everything from hamburger to Hamburger Helper, chocolate to chocolate-cake mix, cheese to Cheesy Poofs. According to the Consumer Price Index, the onset of the pandemic, supply-chain disruptions and the subsequent cascade of federal Monopoly money, what cost you $10 in December of 2019 runs $11.70 today—up 17 percent in 36 months. On the public-policy side, this is where things get interesting. Take sales taxes, just one thread in a tangled weave of revenue sources that feed the beasts in Jefferson City and Topeka. Without lawmakers having lifted a finger to raise taxes, higher nominal prices for the things you buy—not just groceries, but cars (new and used), appliances (how the hell did refrigerators start going for two grand?), tires, paint or yard mulch—all of it boosted the bottom line on sales taxes for each state. As it has for cities and counties. But there’s a word limit with this commentary, so we’ll confine ourselves to the Capitol buildings for the moment. Between 2019 and the end of 2022, the Census folks tell us, Missouri sales tax collections went from $3.81 billion to $4.32 billion—an increase of nearly $506.9 million. In Kansas, sales tax
Dennis Boone is the edito rial director at Ingram’s. E | DBoone @ Ingrams.com P | 816.268.6402
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IN A NUTSHELL
by Ken Herman
Here We Go Again?
The fate of another big bank hangs in the balance as Fed assesses the need for yet another interest-rate hike. The coming days are expected to be crucial for the fate of First Republic Bank, as the White House, Federal Reserve Bank, and Treasury Department are evaluating plans to save the troubled regional lender under an “open bank” rescue. One scenario under consideration is to create a special purpose entity, whereby the big banks that earlier supported First Republic with $30 billion in deposits would purchase the underwater loans on its balance sheet (above where they would be marked to market). If this occurs, First Republic may be able to go out and raise new equity. The bank is striving to strengthen its balance sheet to avert a takeover by regulators and to allow for capital-rais- ing possibilities. It has been working on cutting costs, with plans to reduce its workforce by as much as 25 percent in the second quarter and condensing corporate office space. First Republic, which has been struggling with customers flee-
recent softer data on retail sales and manufacturing. As the Federal Open Market Com mittee meets in early May, it faces mul tiple conflicting forces—as does the world at large. The minutes from FOMC’s most recent previous meeting were released recently, revealing a significant min ority of Fed members who did not want to raise key interest rates at that point, mostly due to recent banking turmoil. These committee minutes also revealed that Fed staffers predicted a “mild recession” later this year. Overall, these minutes revealed that a minority of Fed members are dovish, so in light of the latest consumer and producer-price indices’ data, plus lower
ing the bank (known as the rich people’s bank; the average net worth of their cus- tomers was $3.5 million), reported net de- posit outflows of $72 billion during its first quarter, despite support from 11 of the biggest lenders in the U.S. Although other big banks posted record revenues, they issued a cautious note about recent stress in the financial sector and the negative impact it could have on future lending. It is still difficult to assess the extent of tightening from the bank tur moil, but one way of thinking about it is that approximately $350 billion left the balance sheets of small banks and landed in
Treasury yields, we can expect one last hike in interest rates—and then a wait-and-see post ure by the Fed. The Fed staff expects a recession in the second half of 2023. Wall Street is sympathetic to that forecast. But if it is going to hap- pen, employment and income growth
Confusion concerning the market’s direction and its volatility continues, with the financial media warning that first-quarter earnings forecasts may be decelerating.
money market mutual funds or on large banks’ balance sheets. Large banks characterize these new deposits as “hot money,” likely to leave as quickly as it arrived. They will lik ely wait before using these new deposits to make loans. Hence, $350 billion that previously was available to finance lending is now sitting in reserve balances and U.S. Treasuries. Confusion concerning the market’s direction and its vol atility continues, with the financial media warning that first quarter earnings forecasts may be decelerating from their original estimates at the start of the quarter. Opinions about how the first-quarter earnings season will play out are very mixed. There are those who believe the market’s resiliency is about to get a major wake-up call, where profits and guidance will sorely disappoint. But there are just as many who believe that companies will deliver top-and bottom-line results that surprise to the upside, despite some
must slow first. I suggest that we not expect much of a slowdown during the second quarter, given the momentum in income and job growth. The list of economic challenges is growing, but the top-line data still reflect a great deal of positive momentum. The Fed staff’s recession forecast is based on their economic model’s reaction to 475 basis points’ worth of rate hikes in the span of a little more than a year, which took them beyond a 50-50 assessment of recession risk late last year, compounded by addition al credit tightening in the aftermath of the March bank failures.
Ken Herman served as the Managing Director of Bank of America Global Capital Markets and was the Mayor of and served on the City Council in
Glendora, Calif. E | Editorial@
Ingrams.com
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1 IN 3 KANSAS CITIANS RELY ON UNITED WAY OF GREATER KANSAS CITY SERVICES. THEY ARE YOUR NEIGHBORS, AND THEY NEED YOU.
Because of the 400+ Kansas City companies who run workplace campaigns and 25,000+ individual donors, this year United Way and its’ partners were able to provide:
FOOD ASSISTANCE TO NEARLY HALF A MILLION HOUSEHOLDS IN KC
EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE LIKE EVICTION PREVENTION TO ALMOST 115,000 HOUSEHOLDS
HEALTH SERVICES
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SUCH AS ROUTINE MEDICAL SCREENINGS + MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES TO NEARLY 100,000 KANSAS CITIANS
FOR OVER 30,000 YOUNG PEOPLE
AND SO MUCH MORE
TO DONATE, VOLUNTEER OR LEARN MORE ABOUT UNITED WAY OF GREATER KANSAS CITY, VISIT: UWGKC.ORG.
HIGHLIGHT | 2023 40 UNDER FORTY
We’re Back in the Business of Celebrating Young Leaders After a two-year pandemic pause on large group events and a wind-blown outdoor gathering in 2022, the 40 Under Forty awards program returned with a party-hardy mentality to historic Union Station on May 11. G R A M ’ S
from past 40 Under Forty winners who have gone on to achieve pinnacle career success and earn Alumni of the Year distinction since that award debuted in 2016: Greg Maday of SpecChem and Sporting Kansas City, Peter Mallouk of Creative Planning, Neal Sharma of Dentsu Group, Debbie Wilkerson of Greater Kansas City Community Foun dation and this year’s honoree, Mike Maddox of CrossFirst Bank. It was a worthy tribute to the lat est class, which brings to an even 1,000 the number of high-achievers from across the region since that first cohort in 1998. r s a r y g i n 2 0 2 3
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A crowd of hundreds—bring- ing together friends, family, executive leaders and co- workers—turned out in force to toast the 25th class of Ingram’s tribute to rising young executives in the greeater Kansas City region.
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With music, libations and savory hors d’oeuvres to help set the mood, this year’s honorees were treated to video testimonials
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THE 25 TH ANNIVERSARY
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1. Union Station, home to more 40 Under Forty awards events, was humming again with hundreds in attendance. | 2. The 2017 Alumna of the Year, Global Prairie co-founder Anne St. Peter , provided an inspirational welcome. | 3. Peter Browne and Debbie Wilkerson , left, board members for Notre Dame de Sion, were on hand to celebrate honoree Alicia Kotarba (right), the school’s president, along with her parents, Ed and Cathy Herald , and husband, Wade Kotarba . | 4. Shahabi Banefsheh, left, joined honoree Saeed Valian along with Stephen and Shaina Aiello . | 5. Honorees Christina Arnone , left, and Jon Goss with Lindsey Allee-Goss. | 6. The cheering section for honoree Trevor Lewis included Kristi and Wade Pugh, Layla Lewis, Shana Ryan and Linda Lewis . | 7. Honoree Austin Baier receives his plaque from Ingrams ’ Joe Sweeney. | 8. Honorees received commemorative walnut-and-brass plaques. 9. A hearty buffet supplied by Brancato’s Catering fed the masses. | 10. Barbara Schrader , left, and Dan Stalp, part of an alumni group now 1,000 strong, with Mary Ann Cappo and George Guastello. | 11. Mishelle Drake receiving her honoree award. | 12. Satin Bennett with honoree Cynthia Andrews , right. 13. Honoree Seth Arnold, joined by Adriane Arnold, Katrina Hughes and Dan Hughes .
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