KC voters to decide on whether to renew public safety tax that would fund new city jail
Kansas City voters will decide in April whether to renew the public safety sales tax for another 20 years.
If approved, the money raised would go to build a new city jail and pay for other law enforcement-related construction projects and purchases. The City Council signaled months ago that it was eyeing the April 8 election for a renewal vote.
But it wasn’t until Thursday that city elected officials settled on a 20-year extension versus 15 or 30 years.
The current quarter-cent sales tax was first approved in April 2002, was renewed in 2010 and is set to expire on June 30, 2026.
The tax nets $24 million a year and pays for past and present projects, such as renovations now underway on the top floor of police headquarters to build a booking and temporary holding area for people police have arrested.
Revenues are projected to increase 2% annually, Tammy Queen, the city’s finance director, told the council’s finance committee on Tuesday.
She said taxes collected over the term of the renewal would be sufficient to pay for a new municipal jail and rehabilitation center, as well as projects on the police department’s wish list. They include a building new Central Patrol Division, buying new police cars and body-worn cameras for officers, Queen said.
The city plans to build its jail next to the new Jackson County Detention Center at 7000 E. U.S. Highway 40, which is now under construction. The deal to buy that land from the county is contingent on approval of the sale tax renewal.
Kansas City closed its jail 15 years ago and began contracting with the county for jail space in a building adjacent to the county’s current detention center in downtown Kansas City.
That arrangement ended in 2019. City detainees are now being held in the jails operated by the sheriffs in Vernon County and Johnson County, Missouri.
City officials say those arrangements are costly, and inconvenient and denies them the ability to provide rehabilitation and other services that a new city facility would offer.
The council has not decided on the exact cost, size or configuration of what officials are describing as a “municipal rehabilitation and detention center.”
But it’s estimated to cost about $200 million and voters will have those details available to them before they cast ballots, the city says.
