By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

December 9, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – The KCMO City Council discussed the renewal of the city’s one-cent capital maintenance sales tax during a joint committee meeting on Wednesday, December 7. The sales tax generates $70 million per year for the Public Improvements Advisory Committee (PIAC), is split between the six council districts, and is set to expire in December of 2018. Ordinance No. 160876 would renew that sales tax, albeit with some tweaks.

Beginning in 2019, PIAC would be tasked with making recommendations on only 35% of the receipts raised by the sales tax, with that money bound for “neighborhood conservation, maintenance and improvements divided equally among Council districts.” The City Council would then grant final approval of those recommendations. Currently, PIAC makes recommendations on 100% of the sales tax receipts derived from the one-cent capital maintenance sales tax, though the City Council still maintains the right of final approval.

The renewal of the capital improvements sales tax calls for the City Manager to make recommendations on the remaining 65% of available receipts raised through the sales tax, marking a departure from the previous version of the ordinance. The city manager would be explicitly authorized to recommend capital maintenance projects with those funds. Additionally, the city manager would be authorized to transfer up to $500,000 in unencumbered “neighborhood funds” to districts for neighborhood conservation, maintenance and improvements, as long as both council members within the district request those funds in writing to the city manager. The ordinance further states that the city manager “shall seek the recommendation of public improvements advisory committee members from the affected district prior to approval of any request to transfer funds under this subsection.”

The new processes related to the city manager would begin in May of 2019, and it would still require the final approval of City Council, but some members of the public disagreed with the idea of taking responsibility away from the PIAC process.

“It allows the city manager to have the sole discretion for directing 65% of their funds,” said South Kansas City Alliance President Stacey Johnson-Cosby. “I’d like to respectfully request that you keep the ordinance written as it is now.”

The expiring ordinance, No. 070849, explicitly states that PIAC should make recommendations on 100% of the tax receipts recognized by the City that are raised through the one-cent capital maintenance sales tax. Former Kansas City Councilman John Sharp, now a PIAC representative, also spoke in support of keeping the previous ordinance language intact.

“I think it’s important to keep that citizen voice in the process,” said Sharp.

If you’d like to know more about the proposed extension of the 1% capital improvements sales tax, the City Council’s joint Finance and Governance and Transportation and Infrastructure committee will meet again on Wednesday, December 15 at 9:30 a.m. on the 26th floor of City Hall.