A permanent emergency shelter for people who are unhoused could finally be in the cards for Wyandotte County if voters approve a proposed health sales tax in November.

The ¼-cent special purpose tax, which the county’s Board of Commissioners endorsed Aug. 20, would initially generate approximately $12 million annually and last for 10 years. With inflation, said Alan Howze, interim county administrator, the tax could bring in nearly $140 million to fund health-related needs over the decade.

According to the ballot language included in an Aug. 20 resolution to place the tax in front of voters, uses for the sales tax revenue could include indigent care, behavioral health, substance abuse, preventive healthcare services and the county health department.

While it will be up to county commissioners to allocate the funds, addressing issues related to the county’s unhoused population is expected to be a priority. 

Howze said the sales tax revenue would allow the county to operate a year-round emergency shelter. Currently, the county only offers a temporary shelter, open on the winter’s coldest nights.

The county already has $4 million in capital funding to pay for a shelter facility, including $2 million the county received after Cerner Corp. abandoned its Village West campus and $2 million from American Rescue Plan Act funding. But it needs the sales tax revenue to fund ongoing operations.

Howze said sales tax revenue also could support other community organizations providing additional services to the county’s unhoused residents, including mental health and substance abuse services.

“We can really help increase the number of available beds and treatment options and reduce the likelihood of somebody falling into homelessness,” he said, “as well as help them come out of homelessness.”

A site for a permanent shelter has not been selected. Howze said the Wilhelmina Gill Multi-Service Center at 645 Nebraska Ave., which serves as the county’s temporary shelter, will not become the permanent shelter.

How commissioners voted

Commissioners voted 6-3 to place the countywide health tax on the Nov. 3 ballot. Commissioners William Burns Jr., Chuck Stites and Andrew Kump voted against the measure. 

Kump said he understood that a sales tax could offset future property tax increases, but he expressed concern about the regressive nature of sales taxes, which disproportionately affect people with less wealth.

“They’ll feel this more than higher-income families,” Kump said at the Aug. 20 meeting.

Commissioners also voted to place a citywide ⅜-cent sales tax for city parks and infrastructure on the November ballot. Revenue from that tax, which would be split evenly between the two county departments, is expected to be about $16 million annually.

The resolution placing the parks and infrastructure tax, which will only apply in Kansas City, Kansas, was approved by a  6-4 vote. Burns, Stites and Kump voted no, as did Commissioner Christian Ramirez.

Ramirez said that although he supports parks, he believed all of the sales tax revenue should be directed toward infrastructure projects.

“We need to fix our streets, our pavements, our bridges,” he said at the meeting. “Those are important to keep our community mobile and connected.”

A survey of county residents earlier this year found that 39% of respondents were supportive or very supportive of a special sales tax increase to fund specific needs, while 27% were neutral and 34% were not supportive at all. The highest percentage said they would most support funding for homeless services and affordable housing. 

City taxpayers already pay a ¼-cent special purpose sales tax for emergency medical services and a ⅜-cent sales tax for public safety and neighborhood infrastructure, divided equally among police, fire and public works. That’s on top of a state sales tax rate of 6.5%, a county general sales tax of 1% and a city general sales tax of 1%.

How residents reacted

Nikki Richardson, executive director of Justice for Wyandotte, said she supports the investment in the county’s health needs. When people are victims of abuse, are unhoused or wind up in the justice system, unmet health and social needs are often a significant cause, she said.

Her organization is calling for the county to invest at least one-third of its budget in health and social services, something that has become even more important as federal and state funding for healthcare is experiencing cuts.

“I had seen (the county) already making cuts to health and social services, and really wanted to sound the alarm that if there are cuts happening at a federal and state level, we can’t also afford to cut it at a county level,” Richardson said.

On Aug. 10, the Wyandotte County Public Health Department announced it would suspend some primary care services due to staffing issues. Those services have not resumed, but Howze said the pause is unrelated to the need for a new health sales tax.

Richardson said another reason she supports the proposed sales tax is because it will help spread wealth from the Legends development in western Wyandotte County to some of the county’s poorest areas in the northeast.

“This is one of those rare moments,” she said, “where you do actually get to see dollars out west flowing to the east side of town.”

Eva Garcia-Meza, a board member for We the People of Wyandotte County, a community watchdog group, agrees there is a huge need to fund health and social services in the county, but she opposes any tax that isn’t designated for a well-defined purpose.

“Do I see a need in all of these categories?” she said. “100%, I see it. But without an actual plan, we are at a standstill. It doesn’t matter how much money we throw at it.”

She also faulted the commission for taking tax funding away from needed services by going along with tax incentives to lure the Kansas City Chiefs to Wyandotte County.

“How do you reconcile, we have this to give (to the Chiefs), which we don’t,” Garcia-Meza said, “and then turn around and say, ‘If you want better infrastructure and better health, you have to pass this other tax?’”

Citizens who testified about the tax proposals at an Aug. 17 meeting of the commission’s Administration and Human Services Committee expressed similar concerns.

“Time after time we find money for developers,” one resident said, “but none for community priorities. We have to end this addiction to diverting sales tax to developers. It’s the opposite of Robin Hood. It’s raising taxes on the poor to protect the developers and their deals.”

Howze said no revenue from a special purpose sales tax will go toward paying off STAR bonds, an economic development tool used to bring the Chiefs and other developments to the county. The debt generated through the sale of STAR bonds is paid off with tax revenue generated within a development district.

Residents also expressed concern about the added burden any sales tax puts on poor families. 

Commissioner Jermaine Howard said he understands that concern, but he supported the resolution because he believes the revenue the taxes will generate will also support the county’s poorest residents. And the sales tax burden, he said, will also fall on visitors from other cities and states who shop in western Wyandotte County.

“Yes, I’m aware that the community … most impacted will be low-income families,” Howard said during the commission meeting. “But I also understand that by investing with this sales tax, it will change the narrative in those communities. They will start to see the infrastructure improved, parks improved, roads, schools will start to be improved. A lot of the time we forget that our community is not aware of what true investment … really looks like.”