Carl Gerlach hasn't had to fight for his title as Overland Park mayor since his 2005 election, but that changes this year.
Republican Charlotte O'Hara will challenge Gerlach for the position he's held for more than a decade. O'Hara is a construction and development professional who served a term in the Kansas House of Representatives in 2011.
"We're just totally going in the wrong direction," said O'Hara, who credits her decision to run to developmental tax incentives for destinations like Prairiefire and Corbin Park.
"135th Street, it's like the street of shame," O'Hara said. "This is the highly prized real estate area in the entire metropolitan area yet there's tax incentives that's being given away."
"We've got the lowest taxes in the entire state of any city," said Gerlach, pushing back on the assessment that the tax breaks are hurting everyday residents of Overland Park.
"We really run it like a business. It's a return on investment and we set up a development agreement with each one and we have criteria they need to meet and if they don't meet it, we claw back in investment that we've made into a project," Gerlach said.
O'Hara believes a mill levy rate without developmental incentives rolled in would be incentive enough for future businesses.
"In 2006, our mill levy was 7.5 [percent]. Now it's 13.8, so it's nearly doubled in 10 years," said O'Hara. "That 7.5, from a businesswoman's perspective, that was incentive in and of itself to do business in Overland Park."
The election will be in November 2017 unless more challengers join the race. If so, an August primary will happen first.
------
Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
