Rhiannon —
Below is a law-only note you can copy into an email. No personal framing. It is written so a lawyer or JEDO member can answer the spending question on the statutes, the AG opinions, the ballot/interlocal, and the GO Topeka contract.
The Shawnee County half-cent retailers’ sales tax is a special-purpose tax. K.S.A. 12-187(g)(1) requires the governing body to specify the purpose or purposes for which the revenue will be used and to put a statement of that purpose on the ballot. The 2014 extension language pledged the tax for economic development and named infrastructure/quality-of-life projects. Spending must stay inside that approved purpose.
Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2001-014 holds that sales-tax proceeds may be used for economic development only if the electorate approved that use. A later contractor or board cannot expand the purpose because a dinner, banquet, or sponsorship “feels like vitality.” AG Opinion 2017-015, issued to the City of Topeka on this same county half-cent, confirms that use of the tax follows the ballot proposition and the city-county interlocal. The interlocal and JEDO’s annual appropriation to GO Topeka are the operating documents that implement the ballot.
The GO Topeka service contract is tighter than the statute. JEDO appropriates a fixed annual amount for the economic-development program. Grant, contribution, and sponsorship spending is permitted only as specified in the annual budget JEDO actually approves. A banquet table, church dinner, ministry retreat, festival sponsorship, NAACP Freedom Fund banquet, YWCA awards table, or similar civic/event check is not payroll, not a plant, not equipment, not a job-creation incentive, and not a widening of the tax base. Those items are contributions/sponsorships.
On May 6, 2024, GO Topeka produced its own list of “grants/contributions/sponsorships/scholarships” for 2022 and 2023. The civic/banquet/church/festival slice that cannot reasonably be classified as a factory or employment incentive totaled $93,235. The larger drawer into which those checks were placed (Choose Topeka, PTAC, Forge, pitch prizes, and similar program labels) totaled $861,750. Combining banquet and sponsorship checks with deal incentives under one program name does not convert the banquet into an authorized economic-development expenditure. It only conceals the character of the spend from the board that is required to approve the budget.
Three written answers are requested from counsel and from JEDO:
- Yes or no, with citation: is an NAACP banquet, a church dinner, a YWCA awards table, or a comparable civic/festival sponsorship an economic-development cost payable from the half-cent tax under K.S.A. 12-187 et seq., AG Op. 2001-014, AG Op. 2017-015, the 2014 ballot/interlocal, and the GO Topeka contract?
- Will JEDO require GO Topeka to split true deal incentives (real property, equipment, employment, training tied to a project agreement) from contributions, sponsorships, and scholarships so banquet and civic checks cannot be booked inside Choose Topeka, PTAC, Forge, or similar buckets?
- Will JEDO treat any line that is not specified in the approved annual budget as unauthorized grant-fund spending and require it to be reclassified or repaid?
If the expenditure is not on the ballot, not in the interlocal allocation for economic development as JEDO defined it, and not specified in the JEDO-approved budget, it is an unauthorized use of special-purpose sales-tax money. That is the legal issue.
Look here - this is against the law
This is why we want the report
H
Henry McClure
Time Kills Deals
785.383.9994
444
From: Yahoo Mail <hedgetree@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2026 7:33 AM
To: Henry McClure <mcre13@gmail.com>
Subject: Fw: minutes
Find this interesting?
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rhiannon Friedman <rhiannon.friedman@topekapartnership.com>
To: Yahoo Mail <hedgetree@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2026 at 03:42:35 PM CDT
Subject: RE: minutes
Carol,
Thank you for reaching out regarding the GO Topeka Board meeting minutes.
As a private nonprofit organization, we are not generally subject to the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA), so our Board meeting minutes are not public records under KORA.
K.S.A. 45-240 does provide specific requirements for nonprofits that receive public funds, but those requirements are focused on documenting and reporting the receipt and use of those public funds rather than Board meeting minutes.
For that reason, we are not required to provide Board meeting minutes under K.S.A. 45-240. If you are looking for financial information related to public funds, we’re happy to help with that request.
Thank you,
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From: Yahoo Mail <hedgetree@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2026 8:02 AM
To: Rhiannon Friedman <rhiannon.friedman@topekapartnership.com>
Subject: minutes
Good morning, I would like to read the minutes of the Go Topeka meetings. I read they were online, but I can't find them could you help? If not, I would like to make a Kora request for the Go Topeka minutes from May 2025 to present. Thank you, Carol Marple 785-221-2306