City Manager, Mayor submit 2017-2018 budget to City Council; Focus on public safety obligations

Mayor Sly James and City Manager Troy Schulte on Thursday submitted to the City Council a fiscal year 2017-2018 budget that focuses on public safety as prioritized by residents through the Citizen Satisfaction Survey, and the City Council’s Five-year Citywide Business Plan.

The $1.59 billion submitted budget proposes increasing public safety expenditures by $19 million, or 4.6 percent over the current year. Public safety accounts for 76 percent of the General Fund operating budget.

“Public safety is fundamental to our city’s success, and a priority of our citizens,” said Mayor Sly James, “and we will continue to focus on innovative tactics for crime prevention in order to make Kansas City safer for all of us.”

The City of Kansas City, Missouri has a great deal of momentum, as measured by increasing citizen satisfaction with the city’s delivery of basic services, which is up 9.5 percentage points from four years ago. The City also shines with increasing population, national attention to successes such as the KC Streetcar, Smart City initiatives and growing economic development investments.

However, the increase in public safety spending outpaces revenue growth, which requires cuts in other spending.

“Fulfilling our public safety obligations comes at a cost,” said City Manager Troy Schulte, “The non-public safety portion of the budget will only maintain existing services with no significant increases in any other services or programs.”

As the City Council and residents consider the proposed budget, residents will also be studying the proposed $800 million infrastructure maintenance bond issue that is on the ballot April 4. Please note that the bond program is separate from this year’s Submitted Budget, which maintains annual infrastructure spending at current levels.

The entire proposed budget can be found at kcmo.gov/finance. This will include a line-item detail on funding recommendations for each of the City’s many departments and programs.

Residents are invited to provide feedback regarding the submitted budget by attending scheduled budget meetings or submitting feedback online through KCMOmentum, the city’s online town hall.

Council members will travel to three community locations for public hearings on the budget. Scheduled budget hearings are:

Saturday, February 18, 2017
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Mohart Multipurpose Center
3200 Wayne Ave.

Saturday, February 25, 2017
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Woodneath Library
8900 NE Flintlock Rd.

Saturday, March 4, 2017
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Southeast Community Center
4201 E. 63rd St.

Additionally, public feedback will be accepted during City Council budget deliberations. These sessions take place at City Hall, 414 East 12th Street, in the tenth floor committee room:

March 1, 8, and 22
Wednesday’s at 8:30 a.m.
Finance & Governance Committee meeting