Jackson County Executive Frank White has a no-good plan to politicize COVID-19 funds

To almost no one’s surprise, Jackson County Executive Frank White has politicized what has become an unseemly and unnecessary tug-of-war over millions of dollars in federal funding for Kansas City’s coronavirus response.

In a dramatic and provocative decision Monday, White picked former Kansas City Mayor Sly James to be the lead adviser on a task force that will recommend to the Jackson County Legislature how to spend funds from the federal coronavirus relief bill.

While the task force cannot make binding decisions, it could play an important gatekeeping role in how the county’s $122 million is distributed.

James actively backed Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas’ opponent in last year’s election. Lucas wants $54 million from the county’s relief fund.

The Jackson County Legislature should reject White’s increasingly political approach to the coronavirus crisis. The county should allocate the funds that Kansas City needs for police and fire services, health screenings, housing and other priorities as quickly as it can.

We first predicted this controversy in March. Congress set aside $150 billion to help states and local governments respond to COVID-19, but Kansas City gets no money directly because it’s a few thousand people short of the arbitrary 500,000-resident threshold in the federal rescue measure.

Instead, Kansas City must rely on county governments for coronavirus money. Jackson County, with 700,000 residents, gets its money straight from Washington, D.C.

Lucas has been working for weeks to negotiate payment agreements with county governments. On Monday, he asked the Jackson County Legislature for $54.6 million, to pay for overtime, testing, equipment, housing, business relief and other purposes.

Time is of the essence, Lucas told legislators. “We do need some of this stuff now,” he said.

Legislators seemed generally sympathetic to the mayor’s requests. But White — joined by Troy Schulte, Jackson County administrator and another Lucas skeptic — said the county wouldn’t provide the money in advance.

“I don’t think it’s our intention to hand over checks,” White said.

Both White and Schulte, the former city manager, said they wanted to be cautious in case Kansas City misspent its federal funds. That’s a red herring: Missouri has promised to reimburse any Kansas City spending that is later disallowed.

The real purpose of the delay is to force Lucas to seek funds through Schulte and James, two former City Hall figures who made no secret of their opposition to his election as mayor. Turning coronavirus funding into such a needless political spat is shameful.

“It’s really frustrating,” Lucas said Monday.

County legislators could exercise their full authority to spend money by overruling the task force. White gave them that option on Monday, and they should take him up on the offer: The James-Schulte city-government-in-exile should not be the final word on the county’s coronavirus response budget.

Jackson County’s record on fiscal matters, from the jail to property tax values, is hardly reassuring. James’ penchant for secrecy is also concerning.

Kansas City isn’t asking for a blank check. It’s asking for a reasonable share of the federal funds for identifiable costs. Lucas promised a weekly briefing on the city’s spending, an important commitment to transparency.

We’re not letting Congress off the hook here. The strange funding cutoff of 500,000 residents — put in place to make Sen. Chuck Schumer happy — has caused no end of headaches. It must be fixed, and soon.

But that won’t happen soon enough. Kansas City’s request is reasonable, and Jackson County lawmakers should honor it.

This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 3:52 PM.