Why is KC Council even considering sneaking a sales tax hike onto the April ballot?

The Kansas City Council’s Finance committee will consider an ordinance Wednesday that would essentially put a quarter-cent sales tax increase on the April 7 ballot.

The new funds, roughly $20 million a year, would be used for operating and equipping the fire department. It would expire in 2036.

Kansas Citians should be deeply suspicious of this under-publicized, dubious proposal.

To start with, the council is unnecessarily forcing a hasty decision on a consequential issue. To put the increase on the April ballot, the council would have to approve it on Thursday — yes, this Thursday — after just one hearing. That isn’t nearly enough time for citizens to make their views known.

There is no legitimate policy argument for rushing the vote. The fire department will not collapse if voters decide this question in August or November 2020.

There is, of course, a political reason for this shameless stampede: Those who want to raise your taxes see a clearer path to make that happen in April’s low-turnout, low-interest election. That way, only a few thousand voters can raise taxes for everyone.

Kansas Citians should reject this cynical strategy.

Don’t forget: Voters approved a 20-year sales tax extension for the fire department just six years ago. Now City Councilwoman Katheryn Shields and others may double that tax without a full explanation of why so much more money is needed.

When does it stop? Who can promise the council won’t be back six years from now, trying to double the tax yet again?

Kansas City’s continued reliance on regressive, burdensome sales taxes is wrong. If this tax passes, the sales tax rate in some improvement and transportation districts will approach 11 cents per dollar. That’s appalling.

It’s even more outrageous when you consider that the City Council has spent the last several months handing out enormous incentives to developers for swanky downtown office space. The prospect of asking a single mother on the city’s East Side to hand over even more of her family’s income, while downtown developers get tax breaks, should shame everyone involved in this proposal.

Let’s also remember the recent spike in many property tax appraisals in poorer areas of Kansas City. It’s hard to imagine a tougher environment to ask low-income Kansas Citians to send still more money to City Hall.

This is where Mayor Quinton Lucas must show real leadership.

During last year’s campaign, Lucas repeatedly said he opposed additional taxes in Kansas City. “There are two things Kansas City doesn’t really need more of — more taxes and more task forces,” he said at a debate sponsored by The Star.

He was equally explicit in an interview with The Pitch. “I have no interest in raising people’s taxes for a number of years,” he said. “I just think we’ve had a lot of that lately in the city, particularly the reliance on the sales tax.”

The mayor should be held to those unequivocal promises.

There may be an attempt to explain the tax plan as a back-door way to fund other city priorities, such as free bus service. Raising taxes for the fire department, some will argue, will free up cash for other city priorities.

That, too, would be wrong. Pushing through a tax increase to enable budgetary sleight-of-hand is unacceptable. And it’s beyond ridiculous to provide free transit for low-income residents by taking more tax money from low-income residents.

“Let’s just chill out for a little while,” candidate Lucas said last year. “See what we can do (to) actually spend our budget in a responsible way” before asking for more.

That was the right approach then, and now. There is no reason to put a tax increase on the ballot in April, and the City Council should say so.