Kansas City Council on Thursday approved its largest budget ever — $2.5 billion — for the upcoming fiscal year. It will fund raises for police officers and 911 call takers, improve streets and infrastructure, and boost housing programs.
City Council also approved more money for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, and council members next week will consider an additional proposal to prevent route cuts for at least the next six months.
At three listening sessions earlier this year and in an online survey, residents listed public safety, transportation and homelessness as their top priorities. Some council members amended the budget based on those responses.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said the budget reflects the city’s values and addresses feedback the city council has heard from residents. He also said the city is in its best financial position ever.
“This budget delivers on our promises to make Kansas City more accessible, more affordable, and more equitable for everyone who calls it home,” Lucas said.
But even with revenue growing, the city still plans to spend more money than it brings in. Krista Morrison, the city’s budget officer, said the city will begin looking at strategic budget cuts and more revenue opportunities.
“This budget assumes growth in almost all revenue types. There is growth, but that growth is slowing,” Morrison said. “Our expenditures are outpacing the rate of growth of revenue.”
The 2025-2026 budget will take effect in May. Here are some major takeaways:
Transportation funding increases, with a plan to fully fund city buses
The city will give the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority nearly $78 million this year. That’s more than the $71.1 million it originally proposed for the agency. Most of the money comes from a 3/8th-cent sales tax that is dedicated to the agency.
The KCATA expects to spend about $117 million on operations this year. It previously told the city it’s facing a funding shortfall of about $32 million after its initial budget proposal. Without more money, the agency said it would have to cut 13 of its 29 routes in the city.
The agency would also only operate seven routes on the weekends, stop service at 11 p.m. instead of 1 a.m. and run fewer buses on many of its remaining routes — leaving riders to wait even longer for less service. About 171 workers, mostly bus drivers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union, would be laid off.
After outcry from transit advocates and community groups, city council increased the amount it gives the KCATA from a half-cent public mass transit tax by $6.8 million in an amendment from council members Crispin Rea and Eric Bunch.
More than 250 transit activists with the ATU, Stand Up KC and Sunrise Movement KC rallied outside city hall Thursday before council approved the budget, urging it to fully fund the KCATA.
A proposal for that is in the works.
Erica Flores, a leader with climate activist organization Sunrise Movement KC, addressed the crowd before they went into the council chambers.
"If we come together as bus riders, as members of the community, as operators, that we can actually push them and force our elected leaders to do what is right," Flores said.
After KCUR reported on the cuts proposed to KCATA, the Kansas City Council drafted an ordinance that would give the agency $46.7 million from the transit budget to fully cover operations from May to October.
The rest would be held in escrow while KCATA works to find more funding from other places.
The plan is meant to be a stopgap solution to keep bus routes running during the first six months of the city’s annual contract with the agency while the two groups work out a long-term funding solution.
Council member Johnathan Duncan and Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw championed the plan to keep buses running while also encouraging KCATA to improve its financial structure. Lucas and council members Melissa Patterson Hazley, Darrell Curls and Kevin O’Neill also sponsored the plan.
The council will consider the plan at its Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee meeting on March 25.
Lucas said the city is committed to preserving bus routes and wants more input on KCATA’s service decisions.
“I was disappointed to see the proposed cuts by KCATA,” Lucas said. “I was further disappointed in the form of communication that I think we saw. This isn’t the type of regional collaboration that I think we want and that we should expect here.”
KCATA officials did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Joy Mart was one of the dozens of people who rallied on the steps of Kansas City Hall. Mart relies on the buses to get around, and said that previous budget cuts have already hurt the bus system.
" I live up in the Northland, and the Northland is completely severed from the heart of Kansas City," Mart said. "We've already lost so many of our routes. The closest bus stop to me is a three mile walk along highways and busy roads."
Kansas City Police funding is higher than ever
While the homicide rate dipped to its lowest number in the past six years, nonfatal shootings increased and a wave of property crimes left business owners scrambling.
Public safety continues to be the city’s priority. This year, the Kansas City Police Department will get about $343 million. That’s nearly $23 million more than last year, which set its own record.
Missouri law requires Kansas City to allocate at least 25% of its general revenues every year to the police department, but the city does not control how that money is spent. The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, which includes four members appointed by the Missouri governor and the city’s mayor, controls that money once it’s appropriated.
Most of the police department’s money will be spent on personnel. A portion of its funding comes from a public safety sales tax. That money will go toward facility improvements, car replacements and helicopter maintenance.
The city will also spend $250,000 to give 911 operators raises and hire more dispatchers in an effort to decrease 911 wait times.
The city is doubling its efforts to end traffic fatalities
Kansas City will spend about $8 million for its Vision Zero program to end traffic fatalities by 2030. That’s double the amount the program had last year when it completed nearly 250 projects.
Last year, 97 people died in car crashes. Traffic fatalities have remained high since city council created the program in 2020.
This year’s Vision Zero projects will include small neighborhood projects such as speed humps, as well as complete corridor redesigns similar to one the city did last year along Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard.
City council set aside money from the Vision Zero budget for specific projects such as lights at busy and dangerous intersections — like Bannister Road and View High Drive — and street calming in school zones.
Homelessness efforts and affordable housing will get more money
The city will spend more than $314 million on housing and community development this year.
The budget allocates an additional $1 million to expand access to shelter space year-round and will dedicate $1.8 million to its plan to end homelessness. That money will be used to add five new staff members to help address homelessness, including an encampment coordinator and a street outreach staffer.
The budget dedicates about $10 million to affordable housing preservation, which would help with emergency home repairs and creating affordable housing.
Another $1 million will go toward emergency rental assistance and $12.5 million will be given to the Housing Trust Fund, which the city launched in 2019 to help build and preserve affordable housing for low-income residents.
Kansas City Council recently approved giving more than $20 million from that fund to redevelop Parade Park Homes, which used to be one of the country’s oldest Black-owned housing cooperatives.
KCUR's Kate Mays contributed to this reporting.
