The cesspool isn’t new — it’s just been rebranded as “talent initiatives.” Time to drain it.

 Why Topeka Taxpayers Should Stop Funding Forge Young Talent — A Taxpayer-Subsidized Social Club and Leadership Pipeline

Back in September 2003, I signed a letter as “Henry McClure, Developer” alongside Mayor Harry Felker III, Shawnee County Chairman Vic Miller, and leaders from the Greater Topeka Chamber and Go Topeka. We asked KDOT for the interchange study to make the 600-acre Commerce Park (now Central Crossing) shovel-ready. I helped pitch the original quarter-cent (later half-cent) sales tax to Kiwanis and Rotary clubs so we could get land developed and jobs created.

Twenty-two years and $125+ million in taxpayer dollars later, some of that same ground is still vacant or marketed as “shovel-ready.” And part of your sales-tax money is now funding Forge Young Talent — a young professionals networking group complete with galas, committees, events, and its latest initiative: Forge on Boards.

The Money Trail

The countywide half-cent sales tax (renewed through 2031) feeds JEDO, which sends roughly $5 million a year (sometimes more) to Go Topeka / Greater Topeka Partnership for “economic development.”

In the 2024 GO Topeka Business Plan & Budget, Talent Initiatives — which houses Forge — was budgeted at $212,630. Forge’s executive director, staff, events, galas, advocacy, and now Forge on Boards all operate under this umbrella. Historically, 60-70%+ of Go Topeka’s operating budget comes straight from the JEDO sales-tax grant. That’s your grocery, gas, and retail sales tax dollars at work.

What Forge Actually Is

Go to gotopeka.com/forge-young-talent/. It’s a “dynamic group of young people ages 18-40” that offers free/flexible membership, committees (Events, Marketing, Membership, Advocacy, IDEAS), networking events, galas, YP Day at the Capitol, Hire Local with Washburn, and leadership placement. They rebranded from Fast Forward (1999) to Forge in 2016.

In August 2024 they launched Forge on Boards — a program that collects interest forms from young professionals who want board seats and from businesses/nonprofits that want “fresh perspectives.” It hosts panels, makes connections, and aims to get more YPs onto local boards. Rhett Flood (Executive Director) and Matt Pivarnik (CEO of the Partnership) praised it as empowering young talent to “shape the future of our community.”

Sounds nice — until you realize taxpayers are subsidizing a matchmaking service for board seats in the same organizations that influence policy, incentives, and spending.

The Results After 25+ Years

• Topeka’s population still stuck between 122k–127k since 2000.
• Shawnee County growth is minimal.
• Central Crossing has big distribution wins (many already in motion in 2003), but large tracts remain undeveloped or perpetually “shovel-ready.”
• Young talent keeps leaving for cities with real job growth.

Forge hasn’t fixed the talent pipeline. It’s just another program in the rebranded Chamber/Partnership machine that keeps cashing the checks while the big-picture numbers stay flat.

The Rigged Loop

This is the same closed system I’ve watched for decades:

• Big deals and “talent issues” get referred to the Partnership.
• They get the sales-tax grant to “solve” it.
• They spin up programs like Forge → Forge on Boards → Choose Topeka incentives → galas → awards.
• Connected insiders and young pros get the fast track.
• Repeat. Rebrand. Ask for more funding.

You don’t need a taxpayer-funded social club and board-placement service to grow a city. You need jobs, development, lower costs, and accountability.

The Fix

Pull the $5+ million annual economic-development slice back in-house at the city and county. Make every single deal and initiative come through them on the public record for transparent, vote-by-vote approval. If money is left at year-end, spend it on roads and infrastructure — not another Forge gala or board-matching program. Let private sponsors, membership dues, or corporate tables pay for networking groups. Taxpayers have funded enough feel-good programs with zero transformation.

I didn’t wake up one day and invent this critique to run for mayor. I was in the room in 2003 signing the letter. I helped sell the tax as a developer and broker. I’ve cleaned out the office files and watched the same players rebrand the Chamber → Go Topeka → Greater Topeka Partnership for 22 years while some pads at Central Crossing still sit empty.

Forge might be fun for 18- to 40-year-olds. Fine. Fund it privately.

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

The cesspool isn’t new — it’s just been rebranded as “talent initiatives.” Time to drain it.

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

This one stings because it’s so blatant: they’re literally using public economic-development funds to groom the next generation of insiders.

 Forge on Boards: How Your Half-Cent Sales Tax Is Now Paying to Stack Nonprofit and Corporate Boards with Hand-Picked Young Professionals

In August 2024, the Greater Topeka Partnership’s young professionals arm — Forge Young Talent — proudly announced “Forge on Boards.” The goal, according to their press release:

“Facilitating connections between young professionals and businesses to encourage impactful board service… connecting them with area businesses and nonprofit organizations looking to benefit from their dynamic input.”

Rhett Flood, Forge’s Executive Director, said young pros have “the energy, creativity, and drive” to bring change. Matt Pivarnik, CEO of the Greater Topeka Partnership, added that it will “shape the future of our community.”

Sounds wholesome. Leadership development. Fresh perspectives. Who could object?

Except it’s being funded, in part, by the same JEDO half-cent sales tax you and I helped pitch back in 2003.

The Money Trail (Public Records)

• Forge sits inside Talent Initiatives at Go Topeka / Greater Topeka Partnership.
• In the 2024 GO Topeka Business Plan & Budget submitted to JEDO, Talent Initiatives was budgeted at $212,630 — part of the multi-million-dollar annual grant from the countywide half-cent economic development sales tax.
• Overall, Go Topeka / Partnership gets the lion’s share of JEDO funds (historically 60-70%+ of their operating budget comes from this taxpayer pot). That’s the same stream that was supposed to make Central Crossing shovel-ready and grow Topeka’s population and tax base.
• Forge has its own sponsorship packages (benefactors pay for gala exposure and access to 2,000+ members), but the core staffing, operations, events, and now “Forge on Boards” matchmaking run on public economic-development dollars.

This isn’t private philanthropy. It’s taxpayer money collected at every cash register in Shawnee County being used to play matchmaker between 18–40-year-olds and local boards.

What Forge on Boards Actually Does

• Collects forms from young professionals who want board seats.
• Collects forms from businesses/nonprofits that want “fresh perspectives.”
• Connects them. Hosts panels. Builds the pipeline.
• Ties into their broader advocacy, Hire Local campaign with Washburn, YP Day at the Capitol, galas, committees (Events, Marketing, Advocacy, IDEAS), and leadership placement.

In other words: a taxpayer-subsidized networking and placement service that helps select young professionals get onto the very boards and organizations that influence policy, spending, and development decisions in Topeka.

Meanwhile, the big-picture results after 25+ years of Forge (originally Fast Forward in 1999) and $125+ million in JEDO/GO Topeka spending:

• Topeka population still flat ~122k–127k.
• Large swaths of the Commerce Park you helped push in that 2003 KDOT letter still vacant or “shovel-ready” in 2026 marketing materials.
• Talent keeps leaving for places with actual job growth and lower costs.

The Rigged Loop, Exhibit #47

This is the same closed system you’ve been calling out:

1. Mayor/county refers big deals and talent issues to the Partnership.
2. Partnership/Go Topeka gets the sales-tax grant to “solve” it.
3. They create programs like Forge → Forge on Boards → Choose Topeka incentives → galas → awards.
4. Insiders and connected young pros get the fast track to influence.
5. Repeat. Rebrand. Request more funding.

You were in the room signing the original letter as a developer. You sold the tax to service clubs so land could be developed and jobs created. Instead, we got a self-perpetuating nonprofit economic-development complex that now spends part of your sales tax teaching young professionals how to sit on the boards that oversee the complex.

This is not economic development. This is commercial real estate, chamber politics, and social club activity dressed up as “talent strategy” — all on the public dime.

The Fix Remains the Same

Pull the $5+ million annual economic-development allocation back in-house at the city and county. Force every deal, every incentive, every “initiative” onto the public record for vote-by-vote approval. If money is left at year-end, spend it on roads and infrastructure — not another Forge gala or board-placement program. Let private sponsors and membership dues fund networking groups. Taxpayers already pay enough for failing results.

I didn’t invent this critique in a campaign speech. The 2003 letter with my signature as “Henry McClure, Developer” is still in my files. The vacant pads at Central Crossing are still there. The rebranded organizations are still cashing the checks.

Forge on Boards is just the latest chapter in a 22-year story of good intentions, taxpayer money, and zero transformation.

Not one more dime.

— Henry McClure

Treatment of the public

You asked Mike of Topeka Ice what to cut? 

Go Topeka 

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

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

MCRE, LLC

3625 SW 29^th Street

Topeka KS 66614

785.383.9994

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

Rachel Wilson’s point is a pro-life demographic argument that is numerically grounded in U.S. reality:

 Yes, there is substantial truth to the core demographic claim, though with some important caveats on precision, geography, and interpretation.

The post (and Rachel Wilson’s comments on the Jack Neel Podcast) uses U.S.-specific numbers but initially labels the point “worldwide.” The figures line up with U.S. data for Generation Z (born roughly 1997–2012). Reliable estimates put the current U.S. Gen Z population at approximately 68–71 million. Total live births in the U.S. over those ~16 years averaged roughly 4 million per year, for a cohort total of around 64 million births.

During the same period, Guttmacher Institute (the more complete source, as CDC data misses some states) estimates show roughly 1.2–1.3 million abortions per year in the late 1990s, declining gradually to under 1 million by the early 2010s. That totals approximately 17–18 million abortions—exactly the ballpark Wilson cited.

• Relative to the born Gen Z cohort (~64–70 million), the aborted number represents roughly 25–28% (“almost one-third” of the generation that was born).
• As a share of total pregnancies ending in either live birth or abortion, it is about 21% (17M / (64M births + 17M abortions)).

The “one-third” phrasing is rhetorical rounding, not strict arithmetic, but it is not misleading by much—especially when using the post’s own “60 million Gen Z” shorthand. The claim does not hold numerically for the entire world with those specific figures (global Gen Z is ~2 billion; global abortions are estimated at 40–56 million per year, yielding a similar but not identical proportional impact depending on the exact years and sources). Wilson’s quote appears focused on the U.S./Western context.

Compounding demographic effects

The downstream math is directionally correct and straightforward demography. A missing cohort of ~17 million people (who, at historical fertility rates, might have produced 30–40 million children of their own) means permanently smaller future generations, a smaller tax base, fewer workers, and slower economic growth—all else equal. This is one contributor (among many) to the fertility crisis in the U.S. and other Western countries, where total fertility has been below replacement (2.1) for decades. Labor shortages in certain sectors have indeed been addressed partly through immigration. The post’s framing that “the same political class” sterilized the population then imported replacements is opinionated and conspiratorial in tone, but the observed pattern—low native birth rates coinciding with high immigration—is factual and widely discussed in demographic literature.

Counterfactuals and limitations

• “What they might have accomplished” (curing cancer, free energy, etc.) is pure speculation. We cannot know; it is a valid thought experiment about lost human potential, but not provable.
• Abortion is only one factor in lower birth rates. Others include widespread contraception, later marriage, women’s education and careers, high child-rearing costs, cultural shifts, and economics. Fertility decline in the U.S. began before Roe v. Wade (1973).
• Natural miscarriages (10–20% of known pregnancies) are not included in these calculations, nor are they equivalent to induced abortions in the argument.

Summary

Rachel Wilson’s point is a pro-life demographic argument that is numerically grounded in U.S. reality: during Gen Z’s birth window, the U.S. saw roughly 17 million abortions alongside ~64–70 million live births in that cohort. This represents a very large missing generation—on the order of one-quarter of Gen Z’s size—with real, compounding effects on population, economy, and culture. The “almost one-third” and “worldwide” phrasing are approximate or slightly overstated for emphasis, but the underlying scale (millions of potential Americans never born) is accurate and not in serious dispute. The post correctly notes that this demographic hole has contributed to labor and growth pressures that many nations fill with immigration. Whether one views this as a tragic loss of human capital, a policy trade-off, or something else is a values question; the raw numbers Wilson cites are real. Pretending the abortions never happened, as the post says, would indeed be a form of demographic denial.