Time to end the cesspool. Keep the money local, transparent, and results-driven — or watch another 20 years of the same slow decline.

 Forge: Why Topeka Taxpayers Shouldn’t Be Funding a Young Professionals Social Club with Sales-Tax Dollars

Go to gotopeka.com/forge-young-talent/ right now. You’ll see the glossy pitch: “Forge Young Talent” — a “dynamic group of young people ages 18-40” who network, serve on committees (Events, Marketing, Membership, Advocacy, IDEAS), attend galas, and get placed on boards through “Forge on Boards.” It rebranded from “Fast Forward” (launched 1999) to “Forge” in 2016. Membership is free and flexible. They partner with Washburn, host “YP Day at the Capitol,” and hand out awards at their annual gala.

Sounds nice. Harmless even.

Except your half-cent sales tax dollars — the same economic-development money I helped sell in 2003 — are paying for it.

Here’s the money trail, straight from public records:

• The Joint Economic Development Organization (JEDO) was created to spend the countywide half-cent sales tax “for economic development and countywide infrastructure.”
• JEDO funnels roughly $5 million a year (sometimes more) straight to Go Topeka / Greater Topeka Partnership. That’s the same outfit that still markets Central Crossing pads as “shovel-ready” two decades later.
• In their own 2024 business plan and budget, Go Topeka lists Talent Initiatives at $212,630 under programming — right alongside salaries, marketing, and events. Forge sits squarely inside that bucket. Forge’s Executive Director (they’ve cycled through several: Kelli Maydew, Rhett Flood, and current staff listings) is a paid position under the Greater Topeka Partnership umbrella. Quarterly JEDO reports literally say “Welcome to Forge and the Greater Topeka Partnership!”
• Historical breakdowns show Go Topeka’s total expenses running $3+ million with 67%+ coming from the JEDO sales-tax grant. Leftover “economic development” money gets recycled into more programs like this instead of roads or direct deals.

That’s your money — collected at the cash register from every Topeka family buying groceries, gas, and clothes — being spent on young-professional networking nights, galas, and leadership-placement schemes.

The results? Topeka’s population is still stuck in the same 122k–127k rut it’s been in since 2000. Shawnee County barely budged. Young talent keeps leaving for bigger cities because the jobs and opportunities never materialized at the scale the 2003 pitch promised. Forge has been “forging” for 25+ years (under different names) and the tax base hasn’t exploded. The big distribution centers we landed? Great — but they were already in motion when I signed that KDOT letter in 2003. The rest of the 600-acre park is still marketing vacant dirt.

This isn’t “economic development.” This is the Chamber/Partnership running a taxpayer-subsidized social club and calling it talent strategy. It’s the same rigged loop: mayor’s office refers big deals to Go Topeka → Go Topeka decides who gets the incentives → Go Topeka runs programs like Forge with the leftover public money → repeat. No competitive bidding. No transparent deal-by-deal votes. Just insiders deciding how to spend your sales tax on events and branding while the roads stay terrible and the water bills stay high.

I was in the room in 2003 signing the letter as a developer asking for the interchange to make that park shovel-ready. I helped pitch the original quarter-cent (then half-cent) sales tax to the Kiwanis and Rotary. I’ve watched the same players rebrand the Chamber → Go Topeka → Greater Topeka Partnership and keep the cash flowing for 22 years.

Enough.

The city and county should keep the $5+ million annual economic-development slice in-house. Make every single deal — big or small — come through them on the public record. No more blank checks to the Partnership for talent galas and “initiatives.” If money is left at year-end, put it straight into the roads and infrastructure voters actually approved. Force real competition and real accountability instead of another layer of nonprofit overhead that hasn’t moved the population needle in a generation.

Forge might be a fun networking group for 18- to 40-year-olds. Fine — let private sponsors or membership dues pay for it.

Not one more dime of Shawnee County sales-tax money.

I didn’t make this up to run for mayor. I lived it as a broker and developer who’s been cleaning out the same office files for decades. The 2003 letter is still in my stack. The vacant pads at Central Crossing are still there. The same organizations are still cashing the checks.

Time to end the cesspool. Keep the money local, transparent, and results-driven — or watch another 20 years of the same slow decline.

— Henry McClure Topeka developer, taxpayer, and the guy who was there when they sold you the dream