Josh Merchant is The Beacon's local government reporter in Kansas City. After graduating from Seattle University, Josh earned a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Columbia Journalism School with coursework in data journalism. Josh has contributed reporting to The Seattle Spectator, The South Seattle Emerald and THE CITY in New York. They're a former Beacon intern. At The Beacon, they reported on issues of traffic safety, with a focus on roadway design, as well as tax-incentivized development at a variety of Kansas City agencies. They have lived in Kansas City since 2021.
Kansas City, Missouri
English, French
Local government
Data journalism
A sparkly new development coming to Kansas City’s riverfront?
Like we haven’t heard that line before.
Seemingly every decade like clockwork, somebody pushes an idea that would finally put Kansas City’s 55-acre blemish along the Missouri River to good use. And, inevitably, the proposal ends up elsewhere — and the riverfront remains empty.
But this time, it looks to be finally happening. Like, really, truly happening.
School districts in Jackson County saw home property assessments leap by nearly a third — and add more heft to their tax bases.
They set their property tax rates lower to reflect the beefier assessments — amid a furor from homeowners and politicians contending the numbers inflated the real value of properties in the county.
That tossed Jackson County into the center of a court challenge from the state that could test who can challenge assessments and how.
School districts in the county claimed in court this week that a win for the homeowners would prove “catastrophic,” costing school districts nearly $1,500 per student.
Takeaways: If Kansas City had its way, the local minimum wage would run $17 per hour, grocery stores would only use paper bags and you’d need to pass a background check to buy a gun in town. But politicians and businesses that see these policy ideas as threats to their authority or their bottom lines, […]
Kansas City is about to bottle up its trash better. Bins will replace bags, keeping animals out of the garbage. But the convenience of a lidded trash bin may come at a cost for the environment.
Kansas City set a goal in 2009 to divert 80% of its waste from landfills. Now 15 years later, the city is halfway there. The bins, with their bigger capacity, threaten to reverse that progress. And it might still take more effort to keep trash safe from raccoons.
The signs of springtime are among us: The smell of new flowers, the sight of children playing at the park and the sound of metal scraping against asphalt as cars kerplunk into potholes.
But for all of the racket these potholes cause every spring — and all the money that City Hall dumps into street resurfacing every year — Kansas City’s streets may only become more of a problem in the future.
Three residents filed suit against the state of Missouri this week to end state control of the Kansas City Police Department.
Under the current system of state control, a governor-appointed police board has complete authority to make decisions about KCPD policy, the hiring of the police chief and how the budget is spent.
Spencer Webster, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, argues in the lawsuit filed Monday that the system violates both the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act because it was intended to discriminate against Black Missourians and preserve the institution of slavery.
Say you’re at a restaurant and you begin to salivate over the menu’s lobster thermidor or a flute of champagne. You might balk at the price — unless someone else is paying the bill.
Owners of teams worth billions think the same way.
Economists say that “gold plating effect” makes stadiums more expensive when taxpayers pitch in.
The proposed extension of Jackson County’s sales tax won’t be enough to pay for a new downtown Kansas City Royals stadium.
So the team is in conversation with city officials and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to fill a $700 million funding gap with taxpayer dollars from Kansas City and the state.
Upward of $1.7 billion taxpayer dollars are on the line this April.
After years of planning and negotiations, the Kansas City Royals want to demolish six blocks of the Crossroads district to make way for a shiny new baseball stadium.
But first, they will need voters to agree to tax themselves for four decades to subsidize the Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Imagine trying to get a pothole filled or trash pickup scheduled, or stopping a nuisance from setting up in your neighborhood.
Fighting City Hall is hard enough. For the one in 20 Kansas Citians who don’t speak English very well, it can prove practically impossible.
A proposed Kansas City ordinance aims to change that. It will appear on the City Council’s agenda Feb. 15. It would create an office of language access to expand the city’s translation abilities and bridge the gap between local government and Kansas City’s diverse immigrant and refugee communities.
