South KC Alliance talks voter-approved bonds, November ballot issues

Kansas City’s assistant city manager and the marketing administrator for Jackson County’s Community Backed Anti-Crime Tax (COMBAT) Commission were among speakers at Monday’s meeting of the South KC Alliance at KCPD South Patrol.

Tammy Queen, assistant city manager and the city’s former finance manager, discussed the five city ballot questions approved by voters in the Aug. 4 election. Joe Loudon of the COMBAT Commission provided information about Jackson County’s quarter-cent COMBAT sales tax, which supports law enforcement and funds public and private anti-crime efforts. The COMBAT tax will expire in March if voters do not approve renewal on the Nov. 4, 2026 ballot. 

KC affordable housing bonds, sewer projects discussed

On Aug. 4, Kansas City voters approved the renewal of the eighth-cent Central City Economic Development sales tax as well as $1.7 billion in bonds related to helping fund affordable housing projects; old city buildings and convention facilities; and citywide water and sewer work. 

Exceeding the required 58% majority, 76% of Kansas City voted to approve a $100 million bond to strengthen the city’s affordable housing stock, Queen said. The money will start moving after May 1, 2026, she added. Affordable housing projects are expected to be awarded $20 million grants on an annual basis for the next five years.  

One attendee asked Queen about the $50 million affordable housing bond that voters passed in 2022. The money has funded Kansas City’s Housing Trust Fund since 2022.  

The attendee asked Queen why only 365 affordable housing units have been completed when more than 3,300 projects have been awarded money from the 2022 bond. Queen said it had to do with the availability of bond funds, adding that things move slowly in city government.

“We drive a battleship at City Hall, and it doesn’t move like a speedboat,” Queen said.

Queen also pointed out that the Housing Trust Fund’s function is to fill funding gaps in affordable housing project funding, not to fund the entire projects. She added that projects awarded money since 2022 are likely in various stages of design and construction. 

The crowd also discussed the two separate $750 million bond issues: one for city waterworks projects, and the other to improve sanitary sewer facilities. That money will go toward about $1.3 billion in water projects and about $1.7 billion in sewer projects over the next five years, Queen said. 

An attendee also brought up the recent collapse of an 1892 sewer system on Southwest Trafficway downtown. Queen was asked whether the city knows the condition of its system. Noah Pfeffer, a project engineer for the Smart Sewer Division of the Kansas City Water Department who spoke later in the meeting, confirmed the city does maintain a detailed asset inventory of the sewers by age.

Anti-crime ‘COMBAT’ sales tax up for renewal in November

Louden reminded attendees of the meeting that Jackson County’s quarter-cent COMBAT Tax to fund law enforcement and anti-crime efforts expires on March 31, 2027. The tax was first approved by Jackson County voters in 1989, and renewal now appears on the ballot every ten years. 

COMBAT generates an average of $31.6 million per year, according to the commission website. That money funds law enforcement in Jackson County as well as both public and private anti-crime efforts. Funded programs include 66 violence prevention, substance abuse prevention programs and 33 treatment programs and well as school-based efforts.

John Sharp, president of the South KC Alliance and columnist for the Telegraph, commented that renewal of the tax should have appeared on the Aug. 4 ballot. Louden agreed. 

“One of the facts is this should have been on the ballot a couple of years ago,” Louden said. “You don’t normally let something come down to the wire.”

He also reported the Jackson County Drug Task Force has received $18 million in COMBAT funding over five years, resulting in $171.2 million in illegal drugs seized. That included more than 48,000 grams of fentanyl, he said.