KSHB 41 reporter Megan Abundis covers Kansas City, Missouri, including neighborhoods in the southern part of the city. Share your story idea with Megan.
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The city of Kansas City, Missouri, has implemented a hiring freeze, affecting about 875 open positions across city departments as the 2027 budget faces a deficit of more than $100 million.
City leaders say expenses like wages, pensions, health care and union contracts are rising faster than revenue, forcing officials to halt most hiring to address the structural budget imbalance.
Documents KSHB 41 News reporter Megan Abundis requested from the city revealed which departments will be most impacted by the freeze, with some already experiencing significant vacancy rates.
The Housing Department has the highest vacancy rate at around 61%, while City Planning has nearly half of its positions unfilled. Public Health has about one-third of its positions vacant.
Three departments are exempt from the hiring freeze: Aviation, Water and Fire.
The city estimates the freeze will save around $2 million annually, but residents may experience slower service for permits, neighborhood programs and public health outreach.
Lance Claiborne, president of the Builders Chapter AGC, has been monitoring the situation closely as Kansas City experiences unprecedented construction growth.
"We're going through a boom," Claiborne said in summer 2024.
When Abundis followed up with him recently, he said the growth continues.
"Still climbing," Claiborne said.
He reports record large-scale project construction growth continues, with tens of thousands of construction workers leading the expansion.
"The scale is unprecedented; it's not normal commercial activity that's driving the growth," Claiborne said. “It's incredible. When you look back at Kansas City's history, we’re kind of right there at high water marks for commercial construction."
While Claiborne said "mega projects" like data centers, mission-critical projects and health care institutions have helped provide a "strong pipeline" for the industry, he acknowledged not all contractors work in that space.
"Our membership spans the complete breadth of commercial construction, so not everyone's in that," he said. "So there's still some project types that are having fits and starts and are tied up in capital markets, so there's a delicate balance. Then, the folks on the mega project side who are kind of green-lighting everything, despite costs and challenges and all that kind of stuff. It’s two different worlds, but all in all, it's a strong market for Kansas City commercial construction.”
Still, Claiborne understands that increased demand creates higher stress levels for city project approvers.
If permits get delayed, projects could slow down, and schedules could be disrupted. For large-scale properties, setbacks create ripple effects throughout the construction industry.
This is why Claiborne is counting on communication from the city to prevent disruptions.
"We feel really confident in our ability to collaborate to make sure that these things don't slow down our progress," Claiborne said. "The only thing we can hope for, and the thing contractors want most, is predictability."
Claiborne remains confident there won't be significant disruptions to construction projects.
"They are already proactively looking at these things, which is great," Claiborne said.
City Manager Mario Vasquez and his team stated services will continue with minimal disruption.
“Our budget forecasts have given us reason to begin to implement cost control measures. We have re-instituted a process for reviewing all new hiring decisions to ensure those positions are critical for the delivery of services to residents. The hiring of staff for essential services and those that are supported by user fees continues with minimal disruption.
"We have had record levels of growth in revenue since the COVID epidemic. We managed to build up healthy reserves during that time. Revenue continues to grow but growth rates are returning to normal levels. As a result, we need to recalibrate our spending habits in order to preserve our reserves and avoid deficits. This is not the result of any single budget decision."
To hire someone at the city now, positions must go through a Position Review Committee.
Documents show decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, with officials stating they'll only consider positions "needed for essential service delivery."
The city has also implemented additional cost-saving measures. All city departments have been told to limit travel outside Kansas City, Missouri. Any new mandatory travel must be approved by the department director and reported monthly.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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