Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will sign bill forcing Kansas City to increase police funding
Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons will sign legislation on Monday to raise the minimum Kansas City police funding threshold to 25% of general revenue.
Parson’s office announced Friday he would sign the bill during a ceremony at Kansas City Police Department headquarters.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly in May advanced an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that would give lawmakers the power for the next three years to increase the minimum level of funding Kansas City must devote to its state-controlled police force. The proposal will be put to a statewide vote on Nov. 8.
Lawmakers also passed a bill raising the percentage of Kansas City’s general revenue that must be spent on police from the current minimum of 20% to 25%. Parson will sign that bill on Monday.
But to make the change constitutional, voters across the state must approve the amendment on the November ballot.
Amendment backers will contend it’s needed to push back on efforts to “defund the police” in Kansas City. Opponents emphasize the importance of local control.
The amendment is the culmination of a backlash by conservative legislators against a failed 2021 attempt by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and the city council to assert more control over the police budget.
Under a 1939 law, Kansas City funds a police department that’s controlled by a board of commissioners appointed almost entirely by the governor.
The plan sought by Lucas and the city council would have reallocated $42 million from the police budget to establish a Community Services and Prevention Fund. It would have funded the police department at the state-required 20% threshold, while allowing the city to control spending above that amount. A judge found the plan illegal.
