A year-round homeless shelter, more addiction treatment, and a central hub for services are among the ways a proposed countywide health sales tax could be spent, a local mental health provider told the Unified Government Board of Commissioners on Thursday, Oct. 15. Voters will decide the quarter-cent tax on Nov. […]
This morning, the Mayor CEO/Christal Watson announced that the Unified Government has brought legal action against the state of Kansas, opposing the state law that created the sports authority to administer the proposed Chiefs stadium in western Wyandotte County. The announcement follows Thursday evening’s special meeting of the UG commission […]
The Unified Government Board of Commissioners voted 9-0 Thursday, Oct. 8 to exempt the UG from parts of the state law that created the Kansas Sports Facilities Authority. Commissioners also left the UG’s tax pledge for the Kansas City Chiefs stadium unchanged, dropping a scheduled vote to remove most of […]
The Unified Government Board of Commissioners voted 9-0 Thursday, Oct. 1, to deny a special use permit that would have let developer Inland Bluffs work to recover about 100 acres of Holliday Drive and Inland Drive. Once home to extensive limestone mines, the land is now unstable and unable to […]
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 […]
As it approaches the rocky shoals of budget season, the Unified Government will have an experienced hand at the tiller, with assistant county administrator Alan Howze appointed to run the government on an interim basis. At its Thursday, Jul. 2 meeting, the Board of Commissioners appointed Howze, a 10-year veteran […]
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 […]