Big ticket repairs would raise Kansas City property taxes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City Mayor Sly James has come out with a plan to tackle the city's problems with crumbling streets and decaying neighborhoods.

It calls for one billion dollars in bonds over the next decade.

You might call it - go big or go home.

The mayor said it will take a lot of money to really improve the city's infrastructure, and that residents need to decide if they're willing to pay for it.

Inside the Scoop & Scoot deli at 39th and Indiana, owner James Merrill said he likes the idea, but wants to know where the improvements will start.

"Are we going to start in prime areas, let's say, hypothetically, the Plaza, Westport? And when it's time for the urban core, we'll be out of money, again?" said Merrill.

James wants to spend a billion dollars to fix up neighborhoods six square blocks at a time.

He says concentrating the effort will avoid what you see at 38th and Olive.

The corner has new curbs and catch basins.

But the same block has crumbling curbs and sidewalks.

Nicely kept homes are next to boarded up houses and trashed filled lots.

"That's not a neighborhood, that's a modern urban war zone. We can't let this continue like a cancer or it will eat us up, and then no one will want to live in those neighborhoods," said James.

The money would rehab or tear down vacant homes.

The plan would rebuild, not just repave streets.

The mayor says the pothole problem is because underlying street beds are decaying.

The city would issue $100 million in bonds each year for a decade.

Property taxes would increase each year to pay for the bonds.

The city finance department says the average property tax increase would be $44 the first year- based on today's interest rates.

(Average means the property tax paid by the owner of a $150,000 home and a $15,000 car.)

The mayor's office is using the worst case scenario of 75 bucks extra per year.

Each year that would multiply.

The tenth year the average tax increase would range from $440-$750.

The mayor's staff points out that in the past, bond issues have always been paid out of the city's general fund, which shifted money away from year to year maintenance... and caused the existing backlog of repairs estimated at more than $6 billion.

The mayor says it's time to pay up if residents really want to fix infrastructure.

"That plan has been around here for a long time. It's just never been enacted because of money," said James.

Pat Clarke is a neighborhood activist in the urban core who often speaks out, asking City Hall to spend more on youth programs and other needs.

He likes the idea, and even wants the fix up to happen faster.

But he's against raising property taxes to do it.

"No, for what? We get charged for everybody else's mess," said Clarke.

The city council would have to approve the concept, and then residents would get a chance to vote on it, perhaps later this year.