The City Council has approved a $1.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 that supports major improvements to essential services like street repair and resurfacing, snow removal, cleaning up trash and litter, while also emphasizing public safety through community policing.

Since the proposed budget was first introduced in February, the City Council has listened to feedback from hundreds of residents during multiple public hearings, which has led to several changes to the final budget, including:

  • The Rebuild KC grant program increased from $10 million to $15 million in American Rescue Plan funds 
  • Additional funding for Arts KC, KC Film Commission, and UNESCO to better support the arts and culture community  
  • Additional $500,000 to support small businesses  
  • Additional $500,000 to KC Parks to improve facilities, open more city pools and expand operations (most will be offset by additional revenues from expanded services)  
  • $150,000 to hire more development plan reviewers and construction inspectors in addition to the $1.74 million in new staff and resources being added to City Planning
     

The budget fully funds the new Housing and Community Development Department, with a focus on tenant advocacy, creation and retention of affordable housing, and homelessness prevention. This includes $12.5 million for the Housing Trust Fund (the second half of the promised $25 million), $2.5 million for the Tenants Right to Counsel Program, and $40 million in additional funding for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (funded through federal sources).

“Over the last two years, we’ve made important investments in road resurfacing, expanded trash collection, and launched Kansas City’s first-in-the-nation Zero Fare Transit initiative—all while trimming wasteful spending and working to put Kansas City in a healthy financial spot,” said Mayor Quinton Lucas. “But there is still critical work to be done to rebuild our roads, bridges, and sewers; increase access to public transit and broadband; make our city more resilient against the impacts of climate change; and invest in neighborhoods and communities that have been left behind too often by federal, state, and local officials. Kansas City’s Fiscal Year Budget reflects these priorities and so many more, including further investments in our Housing Trust Fund, substantial funding for neighborhood improvement projects through our Rebuild KC grant program, and increases in City worker salaries to recruit and retain talent and ensure we are paying all in our workforce a humane wage.” 

 “Additionally, this Budget—for the first time in my lifetime—includes earmarked funding to ensure the Kansas City Police Department is prioritizing vital services such as providing officer pay raises, boosting the 911 call center, adding additional homicide detectives, and creating two new neighborhood centers to build police-community relations,” continued Mayor Lucas. “I am proud of this Budget and I thank all of our City staff who worked diligently on producing it for months.”

The Budget allocated $33 million to the Community Policing and Prevention Fund, all of which will go to the Kansas City Police Department to support community policing and crime prevention while adding additional accountability measures, and include:

  • Increased pay for officers and civilian staff 
  • School Resource Officers for public schools citywide 
  • Establishing Community Action Network (CAN) centers in East and Metro Patrol 
  • Increasing our police force with a focus on diversity recruitment 
  • Violent Crimes Division victim and witness support services 
  • $6.6 million to fund the communications unit and increased pay for 911 call-takers.

This budget boosts Public Works to $145 million, an increase of $2.7 million to repair more than 300 roadway lane miles. Bike Share KC funding is increasing by $125,000 to nearly $300,000 to expand mobility options and programming.

Kansas City residents also can look forward to cleaner and healthier neighborhoods with new funding for litter cleanup ($600,000), additional snow removal vehicles ($600,000), dangerous buildings demolition ($2M), four new street sweepers ($2.2M), expanded bulky item pickups ($650,000), and an increased tree planting budget ($250,000) while also increasing KC Parks mowing cycles this summer. Neighborhoods will also see resident-requested projects with $15 million devoted to the new Rebuild KC program (increased from $10 million as noted above).

“We appreciate the support of the Mayor and City Council for essential city services, as well as the investment in our employees who deliver these services.” said City Manager Brian Platt, “This budget reflects the innovative ideas for moving the city forward as we recover from the pandemic’s economic impacts.”

The budget also includes funding to increase salary scales for employees. This will improve retention and recruitment for the city’s workforce and follows a recommendation from the recent market pay study, which shows that City employees have been compensated at below-market rates. 

The City is increasing revenue through better EMS billing and parking control, as well as cutting costs by renegotiating existing contracts and reducing rent paid by consolidating office spaces. 

To read the full budget, visit www.KCMO.gov/budget. The new fiscal year starts May 1, 2022.