Kansas City Mayor Sly James and City Manager Troy Schulte submitted to the City Council a fiscal year 2019-2020 budget that focuses on public safety and basic services as prioritized by residents through the citizen satisfaction survey, and the city council’s five-year citywide business plan.
The $1.73 billion submitted budget proposes increasing public safety expenditures by $21.2 million, or 4.7 percent over the current year. Public safety accounts for 75 percent of the general fund operating budget.
The proposed budget would increase police department funding by $7.3 million (2.9 percent) and fire department funding by $13.3 million (7.6 percent).
As the economy has improved, the city has worked to get its fiscal house in order, which prepares us for any future economic downturn. This budget fully funds all city pension plans for the sixth consecutive year. And for the first time, the city’s reserve fund has reached the goal of having two months of operating costs set aside for a rainy day.
At the same time, we are focusing on funding basic services. Street preservation would increase from $10 million to $17 million to repair more streets. This past year public works resurfaced 157 lane miles and installed 117 ADA accessible corners from this fund.
“With strong support from the mayor and council, city staff has worked to carry out our strategic plans to build city services and implement innovative solutions,” Schulte said. “That’s why we recently won a national award for strategic planning, the budget process and resident engagement.”
The submitted budget also slows the rate of increase in water bills to a lower increase than previous years. The recommended rate increases would be 2 percent for water and 6 percent for sewer. The city is making significant progress with EPA-mandated upgrades and continues negotiations with the EPA that will determine the final rate increases.
The budget transmittal letter is available online, along with the entire proposed budget. Elected officials and city staff would like to hear your feedback. You can comment online at our virtual town hall KC Momentum.
There is one meeting let, slated for Saturday, March 2, 9-11 a.m. at the Gregg/Klice Community Center located at 1600 John ‘Buck’ O’Neil Way