Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas backtracks on cuts to Children’s Mercy, film office
Following pushback from several organizations, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas on Friday said he is walking back several controversial cuts included in this year’s proposed City Hall Budget.
Lucas and Interim City Manager Earnest Rouse on Feb. 13 presented a budget that adds more police officers, spends $4.8 million to make bus transit free for riders and plugs a budget hole at the nearly completed Loews Kansas City Convention Center Hotel.
But some of their recommendations, including cuts to Children’s Mercy Hospital and the KC Film Commission, ruffled feathers. Late on Friday, Lucas sent a letter to council members announcing he would undo some of those proposed cuts.
“We are confident that these changes advance our shared goal of adopting the most equitable budget in Kansas City history while maintaining our proposed balanced budget,” Lucas said. “We also imagine there may be additional changes ahead.”
Children’s Mercy officials said they were “blindsided” by a $500,000 cut included in the initial budget proposal, but Lucas on Friday suggested restoring $400,000 in tax revenue from the health levy.
In a statement Friday, the hospital said the change was a “positive step in the right direction” and that it was “very grateful.”
“With our community’s most vulnerable children foremost in mind, we remain hopeful that all the funding will be restored,” Children’s Mercy said.
Lucas also recommended moving $200,000 from VisitKC to the KC Film Commission. The earlier proposal would cut it by $175,000.
Lucas also proposed using the health levy to add $75,000 back into Teens in Transition, a violence prevention program that helps at-risk youths get summer jobs and social services. The budget proposal would have cut it by $90,000.
In the letter, Lucas proposed spending $50,000 from his office’s budget on the Hire KC Youth program and $25,000 from KC BizCare to fund KC SourceLink, which helps support local entrepreneurs.
Lucas’ letter also acknowledged other city priorities he has not yet managed to fully fund, including affordable housing, an advocate for tenants, even more police officers, mental health programs, street maintenance, neighborhood priorities and “transit access and service toward our zero-fare transit goals.”
The Film Commission was not immediately available for comment Friday.
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 5:28 PM.
