Missouri governor cuts millions for KC Library, child protection program & more
After Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe this week unveiled sweeping budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year, Lisa Mizell and her organization were left scrambling.
Mizell runs the Child Protection Center in Kansas City, which helps law enforcement and other agencies conduct interviews with children who have been sexually assaulted or experienced domestic violence, homicide and other forms of violence.
The organization was hoping for $1.5 million in state funding to help pay for half of a new $3 million child welfare center. The center would train professionals how to properly investigate child abuse and teach parents ways to parent that don’t involve corporal punishment.
They’ll now have to find the funding elsewhere.
“It’s very disappointing,” Mizell said in an interview. “It’s money that we could have used that would have really facilitated a healthier community and now we don’t have it.”
Kehoe signed the state’s $50.8 billion budget for the next fiscal year on Monday. But the Republican governor also slashed or restricted $511 million for projects approved by lawmakers, citing a need to rein in spending ahead of a looming revenue shortfall and an upcoming tax cut.
In the Kansas City area, the cuts were staggering. The Star identified at least 24 local organizations or projects that lost funding, totaling nearly $37 million in cuts. Those figures are based on a review of Kehoe’s budget veto notes and could be higher.
The cuts affected a range of key Kansas City organizations, including Mizell’s Child Protection Center. The Kansas City Public Library lost $1 million in funding. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum received cuts. Theater groups, the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum and various community organizations also had funding axed out of the budget.
Kehoe’s budget vetoes have thrown some Kansas City area organizations into a period of uncertainty, angering many of the lawmakers who pushed for and approved the funding.
“I know how much money we have in our bank account,” said Rep. Betsy Fogle, the top Democrat on the House budget-writing committee who hails from Springfield. “I know what our revenues are. We could have afforded these things.”
The cuts came after Kehoe and other top officials had long predicted that Missouri would soon face a rougher financial picture after years of being propped up by federal pandemic aid. Expansive cuts across the federal government and a wave of recent tax cuts are poised to further illustrate the state’s more sober spending reality.
Kehoe pointed to this in a release announcing the cuts, saying that the state estimates a nearly $1 billion shortfall in general revenue starting next year. The Republican governor also suggested an increase in public school funding, his expected signature on a bill to eliminate income taxes on capital gains and disaster relief for residents affected by recent tornadoes in St. Louis have compounded the state’s tough financial picture.
“While this may be a worthwhile project, due to the aforementioned reasons, we must control new spending and cannot prudently justify this expenditure at this time,” Kehoe wrote in a letter explaining the $1.5 million cut to Mizell’s Child Protection Center.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, criticized Kehoe and other Republicans for pushing tax cuts, such as the capital gains cut, while also slashing money for important organizations and services.
“We’re going to continue to give tax cuts, especially tax cuts for the most wealthy, while working Missourians are forced to struggle,” Nurrenbern said. “The vetoes that came down from the governor are incredibly unfortunate and it’s a sad day to be a Missourian, quite frankly.”
KC organizations face cuts
Other Kansas City organizations also felt the brunt of Kehoe’s cuts. The Arts Asylum, a Kansas City theater production company, was slated to receive — and lost — $250,000 from the state to help pay for their new location, said Evie Craig, the organization’s executive director.
“There were just cuts all over the place that will have impacts on us as we go forward,” said Craig, who decried cuts to arts funding both at the state and federal levels.
Some organizations that lost funding still received some money from the state, such as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The museum was expecting to receive $1.5 million to help pay for operating costs as museum leaders seek to build a new museum and $250,000 to build a tower at the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center.
Kehoe’s vetoes cut $750,000 of the money the museum had requested for its operating costs and the entire $250,000 for the Buck O’Neil Center. Still, Bob Kendrick, the museum’s president, said he respected Kehoe’s decision. The museum would manage, he said.
“I know he has a challenging role as it looks at fiscal responsibility for the state,” Kendrick said. “I know that there was no malice toward the museum. It was just a decision that he felt he needed to make that was in the best interest of the state.”
KC library & college cuts
Some organizations, however, were left to search for other funding streams, such as the Lucile H. Bluford Branch of the Kansas City Public Library. Kehoe slashed $1 million that would have supported a new facility just one year after his predecessor, then-Gov. Mike Parson cut $3 million intended for the library.
“As a result of the veto, KCPL will need to rely more heavily on foundations and the community for funding,” Abby Yellman, library director and chief executive, said in a statement. “Library leadership is grateful to the state legislators who supported the project and confident that the governor and state legislators will reevaluate and support the project at a future date.”
The cuts also affected educational institutions across the state, including Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City. The college was expecting to receive $2 million in state funding to help the school operate its new Hi-Tech Automotive Institute, which prepares students for careers in the auto industry.
“While we are still assessing the full scope of this impact, our primary focus remains on minimizing any disruption to our students and the vital educational and workforce development programs we offer,” Kimberly Beatty, the college’s chancellor, said in a statement.
A day after Kehoe announced his vetoes across the state, Mizell with the Child Protection Center said she was still regrouping. Government cuts and concerns about the economy have created a tough financial climate for nonprofits to fundraise.
If the money had been approved, the organization would have been able to immediately start fundraising to build the new center to help investigate and inform people about child abuse. Instead, Mizell said she’s still weighing next steps.
“It will happen. It’s just a question of when,” she said, later adding, “We’ll have to take a minute and regroup and think about who we can go to raise the funds to make this work.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2025 at 4:48 PM.
