LJWorld.com / AG rules Oz must repay BPU

Archive for Wednesday, October 3, 2001

October 3, 2001

Developers of the proposed Wonderful World of Oz theme park have until Oct. 29 to pay the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities $400,000.

If they don't, according to a Kansas attorney general's opinion issued Tuesday, they'll miss a state-imposed deadline for settling issues critical to the project's finances.

Oz Entertainment Co. president Robert Kory declined comment late Tuesday afternoon, saying he'd not seen a copy of the opinion. OEC attorney John Peterson could not be reached for comment.

But Johnson County Commissioner Annabeth Surbaugh called the ruling a major setback for the developers.

"In my opinion, this puts everything on hold because after that Oct. 29 deadline, everything goes belly-up," said Surbaugh, who withheld her tie-breaking support for the project until after an independent analysis of its chances for success.

Surbaugh said she'll propose shelving that analysis during the commission's regular meeting Thursday.

"I'm not for going ahead with the study until after this latest thing is resolved," Surbaugh said.

Earlier this year, legislators passed a law giving Oz officials 120 days to either pay back Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kan., and the Board of Public Utilities the $550,000 spent on a 1991 feasibility study on putting the park in Wyandotte County or lose access to necessary sales tax incentives.

Oz later paid Wyandotte and Kansas City $150,000.

But company officials did not pay the $400,000 owed to the Board of Public Utilities.

Instead, Oz agreed to enter negotiations aimed at the development's buying its electricity from the board.

The arrangement caused Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer and three legislators to seek an attorney general's opinion whether the deal complied with the law. Stovall ruled Tuesday that it did not.

Stovall's opinion does not carry the force of law; it is merely the opinion of the state's top law enforcement official.