“If you’re so good at attracting business… why did you just kick out the one that showed up ready to build?”

 Topeka’s $5 Million Clown Show: We Pay Experts to Attract Business… Then Slam the Door When It Shows Up

By Henry McClure

Imagine this.

You’re a regular guy in Topeka. You work hard, pay your sales taxes every time you buy gas or groceries, and you’re sick of seeing that same ugly, empty lot on Fairlawn sitting there year after year like a rotten tooth in the middle of town.

So what does your city do? They take five million dollars of your money — every single year — and hand it over to Go Topeka and JEDO. That’s right. Five million bucks. From the half-cent sales tax you pay. They use it to hire experts, print fancy brochures, throw parties for business people, and run ads saying, “Topeka is open for business! Come on down!”

It’s like paying a fancy matchmaker $5 million a year to find you the perfect spouse. You’re excited. You’re hopeful. “Finally,” you think, “something good is coming.”

Then one day the perfect match walks right up to your front door. No begging. No bribes. No taxpayer handouts needed. It’s Maverik — a solid, growing company that builds clean, modern gas stations and truck stops. They looked at that vacant eyesore at 605 SW Fairlawn, right off I-70, and said, “This is perfect. We’ll put our own money in. We’ll create 20 to 50 jobs. We’ll pay property taxes on a lot that’s given you zero for years. We’ll sell gas and food and help truckers who keep America moving.”

The Topeka Planning Commission looked at it, did their homework, and said yes — twice. Once for the full truck-friendly version, then again for a smaller one after neighbors spoke up.

And what did the City Council do?

They voted 9 to 1 to kick Maverik to the curb. August 12, 2025. Only David Banks had the guts to vote yes. The rest said the traffic might be too much and the kids at Landon Middle School might be scared.

Let that sink in.

You paid five million dollars this year — and every year — so the city could beg businesses to come.

A business actually came.

And your leaders looked it in the eye and said, “Nah. Get lost.”

Meanwhile, just up the road in the Kansas City area, places like Independence and KCK are rolling out the red carpet for giant travel centers like Wally’s and Buc-ee’s. Those cities saw the same kind of project and said, “Yes — let’s make it work.” They’re getting hundreds of jobs, new tax money, and shiny new stops that bring travelers in and keep money in the local economy.

Topeka? We’re still staring at weeds and broken pavement while the $5 million keeps flowing out the door like water down a drain.

This isn’t complicated. This isn’t rocket science. This is your money. This is your town.

It’s like hiring someone to mow your lawn, watching them drive around the block talking about how great mowing is, and then refusing to let them actually cut the grass when they show up with the mower.

The experts will tell you it’s “complicated.” They’ll say “traffic studies” and “community input” and a bunch of other big words that all boil down to one simple truth:

We talk a big game about economic development.

Then we kill the development that shows up anyway.

That vacant lot is still empty today. The jobs that could have been there? Gone. The extra tax money that could fix roads or help schools? Never coming. And you, the regular voter buying groceries or filling up your tank, you’re still paying that five million dollars every year for more PowerPoint presentations and “strategic plans.”

It’s not just wasteful. It’s insulting.

Topeka, it’s time to wake up. The next time someone from Go Topeka or the City Council tells you they need more of your money to “attract business,” ask them one simple question:

“If you’re so good at attracting business… why did you just kick out the one that showed up ready to build?”

The matchmaker got paid.

The perfect match got sent packing.

And the rest of us are left with the same old empty lot.

That’s not economic development.

That’s a bad joke.

And the punchline is on all of us.