Patterson Hazley: Vote yes on the earnings tax. Keep the momentum going | Opinion

Kansas City is having a moment. But I’m not talking about the kind that gets announced at a press conference and fades a week later. It’s the kind you can actually see or feel when you drive down a corridor that used to sit quiet for years and now has construction, infrastructure development, neighborhood plans, new homes underway or planned, and real activity. The kind you feel when young people have opportunities to step into careers, when neighborhoods that have been asking for investment are finally getting it, when momentum starts to build on itself.

This kind of momentum is one careful step at a time, and it’s happening. That momentum is powered by the Earnings Tax.

On Tuesday, voters will decide whether to renew Kansas City’s 1% earnings tax, the same rate we’ve had since 1963. It brings in about $373 million a year and funds nearly half of the city’s general operations — including over 4,000 City employee’s salaries. That is what keeps the basics moving, from trash pickup to snow removal to the day-to-day services people rely on without thinking twice. To be clear, the earnings tax is not new. It is our way of getting things done.

And that’s the point. When a city is working the way it should, you won’t notice it every day.

I’ve spent my career in this city, first working at Topsy’s on The Landing Mall, then as a college professor and advocate and now as a Council member, watching what happens when neighborhoods get real investment and what happens when they don’t. The difference is obvious. When resources show up, progress follows. When they don’t, everything slows down.

Right now, Kansas City is moving in the right direction.

On the east side, we are taking on hundreds of vacant lots and turning them into real opportunities for housing. We are cleaning up land that has sat unusable for decades and making it build ready. We are creating pathways for families to come back to neighborhoods that deserve to thrive. We are investing in young people, in workforce development, in food systems, in making sure this next generation can see a future for themselves right here in Kansas City. But more, we are saving buildings that under the normal process, would be torn down without a second thought. Yes, we are chipping away at the City’s longstanding demolition policy one building at a time. That’s progress.

None of that happens without the stable foundation of the earnings tax.

And here is something people do not talk about enough: Kansas City carries the weight of the whole region every single day. People come into our city to work, to do business, to benefit from everything Kansas City provides. The earnings tax makes sure they are contributing too. Nearly half of the entire earnings tax revenue is paid for by non-residents. Without it, that responsibility shifts almost entirely onto Kansas City residents.

But when someone who doesn’t live here drives our streets to get to work, relies on our infrastructure, or comes into Kansas City to enjoy everything our city has to offer, those services are available for them too.

There is a version of this conversation that leans on fear. That says everything falls apart if this fails. While true, I am not interested in that version. I tend to focus on our collective opportunities. Now more than ever, we need each other.

Kansas City does not need to be scared into making the right decision. We just need to be honest about what is already working. We need to lean on the care we always show for each other and double down.

As the former campaign manager for the E-Tax campaign, I know firsthand that Kansas Citians have recognized that before. Voters have renewed this tax multiple times, by strong margins, because they understand what is at stake and what is possible. But don’t take that for granted. Go vote and show them who we are. After all, this is the Show-Me State.

And on Tuesday, we need to do it again. We need to renew the earnings tax to build on our momentum and continue what’s working. Join me and stay the course.

The April 7th election is how we keep going.

Vote yes.

Dr. Melissa Patterson Hazley is 3rd District at-Large Council member