KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City's stay-at-home order to help slow the spread of COVID-19 will continue into mid-May at which point the economy may slowly open back up.
KCMO's original stay-at-home was set to expire April 24, but it will now continue until May 15, which is 12 days after Missouri's new statewide stay-at-home order expires.
"We knew this was going to have a big impact on business," KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas said. "All of these decisions are made with an emphasis on public health and, frankly, all of these decisions with an emphasis on the fact that public health and the economic health aren't separate."
Meanwhile, the ripple effects from the stay-at-home orders are hurting businesses and city budgets.
City leaders in Kansas City forecast shortfalls in the city's annual budget due to uncollected sales taxes, deferred earnings taxes and a lack of revenue from convention and tourism.
In response, the city has issued a temporary hiring freezing with the exception of positions critical to delivery of essential services. KCMO also has suspended travel and limited professional services contracts.
The city also will dip into its rainy-day fund to help balance the budget.
"We are expecting to have much less revenue coming in, and that means we have to find a way to make cuts and we have to deal with that on a very pocketbook basis," city spokesman Chris Hernandez said.
According to a report analyzing data in late March, the city anticipates losing about $30 million for the current fiscal year due to the tax filing extension.
The report expects the city will recoup about 85 to 90% of the collections in the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Still, KCMO will probably lose at least $6 million due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
With hotels closing and events canceled, the report anticipates an immediate reduction of an additional $6 million each fiscal year for the next three years.
"Just like every household in this city, we are struggling to keep a close eye on expenses that we keep looking at the projections to see what kind of money will be coming in and know that we'll have to hold the line and make additional cuts in the future," Hernandez said.
Essential services like water, police, fire, and trash collection will not be impacted
City leaders are working on a long-term plan regarding where money can be saved to avoid dipping further into the reserve fund.
