The Edwardsville City Council voted 4-2 on Sept. 14 to set the city’s 2027 property tax at the revenue neutral rate of 34.346 mills, turning back a push to collect more from a rising housing market. The vote came after a string of residents told the council their county appraisals […]
Mayor breaks tie to hold line on city levy Ten days after a packed public hearing where seniors on fixed incomes pleaded for relief, the Unified Government Board of Commissioners adopted its 2027 budget on Thursday, Sept. 3, holding the property tax rate flat for both the city and the […]
Pinched between rising expenses, citizen expectations, and property tax discontent, the Unified Government Board of Commissioners reached out for another revenue source Thursday, voting to place two sales tax questions on the November 2026 ballot. The first, a county-wide measure would fund health care programs. The second, specific to KCK, […]
Interim County Administrator Alan Howze presented a proposed 2027 budget of $551 million to the Unified Government Board of Commissioners on Thursday, Aug. 6, and made fiscal discipline its cornerstone. “We have had expenses that have exceeded our revenues over a period of time, and that is not sustainable,” he […]
The Unified Government Board of Commissioners spent most of a five-hour meeting Wednesday, Jun. 24, walking through a six-year list of capital needs that far outstrips what the government can pay for, a sobering preview of the budget fight ahead. Before that workshop, commissioners approved a 15-lot subdivision near an […]
The Unified Government Board of Commissioners spent nearly all of its June 4 meeting weighing the question of how to pay the workers who deliver county and city services in 2027 without forcing deep cuts or a property tax increase. With Mayor Christal Watson and Commissioners Melissa Bynum (At-Large District […]