http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-890091.mp3
Kansas City, Mo. – The price of attending most events at Bartle Hall or Municipal Auditorium will go up a little if the city council approves a plan approved by the Finance and Audit Committee Yesterday. The committee approved a flat fifty-cent increase in the city's one-dollar-per-ticket-sold use fee.
It's the first increase in the fee in 14 years, and Oscar McGaskey, who is in charge of Kansas City's event facilities says it is low compared with the fee charged by other similar-sized cities, some of which charge as much as $2.45.
Several producers of family-type events protested the flat fee increase, preferring a graduated one that wouldn't apply to children's tickets.
But McGaskey said that changing the structure of the fee would require a public vote because of Missouri's Hancock Amendment - and that fifty cents is not a big price hike. He said the city has cooperated with event producers when times were good, and in tough times the promoters should return the favor, adding, "A fifty-cent increase is not going to put anybody out of business."
The committee agreed with McGaskey. The fifty-cent increase goes to the full council for a vote in two weeks.