One of the reasons the late Bill Waris was so keen on getting $2 million from Kansas City, Mo., for the stadiums in the early 1990s was Kansas City's use of the earnings tax to raise revenue.

   Mayor Mark Funkhouser said Monday he wants to end the $2 million subsidy for a "regional" approach.  Perhaps he doesn't realize that ending the $2 million transfer could make stadium funding less regional, not more.

   Here's how:

   Jackson County (see below) kicks in $3.5 million a year for the ballparks, but that comes from a property tax, which Jackson Countians almost exclusively pay.

   Missouri kicks in $3 million -- about $2 a year for a family of four. Missouri does take in some sales and income taxes from outside the state (including athletes who live outside the borders) but the amount per person is pretty small.  (And since it includes people from Illinois, Arkansas, and Iowa as well as Kansas, it's spread out even more.)

   But Kansas City's earnings tax -- which raises about $206 million -- can nick Johnson Countians and others who live outside the city limits.

     The earnings tax represents roughly 40 percent of the city's general fund.  Forty percent of the $2 million stadium subsidy is $800,000.

   By some estimates, out-of-towners pay about a third of the earnings tax.  Thirty-three percent of $800,000 is $264,000.

    That means those living outside Kansas City pay about $264,000 for stadium upkeep (not counting sales tax collections, suburbanites who own JaCo property, fines, gaming revenues, etc.)

  It may not seem like a lot of money, and in the context of a $1 billion+ budget, it isn't.

   But Waris always said the point of getting money from KC was, at least in part, to make sure out-of-towners were part of the upkeep at the ballparks.

   Of course, Funkhouser isn't talking about refunding that $264,000 -- he's just spending it on something else.

    His decision makes KC police service more regional and stadiums subsidies less.