KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
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A theme emerged Tuesday among voters leaving the polling locations I visited in Jackson County.
“The taxes,” one voter said.
“The property tax issue," another voter said.
“I've been up all night working,” Independence voter Brad Nesbitt said. “I’ve got to go back to bed and work so I can pay more taxes.”
LINK | KSHB 41 Election Results
Some voters also touched on Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr.’s handling of the ongoing issues swirling around the future of the Chiefs and Royals stadiums, though voters seemed to believe there was plenty of blame to go around there.
But White’s steadfast defense of Jackson County’s property reassessments, which drew a record number of appeals in 2019 and again in 2023 as homeowners recoiled at skyrocketing valuations, was his undoing in the eyes of many voters.
FULL COVERAGE | Jackson County property assessments
“He has raised the taxes of the people of Kansas City,” said Gregory Stubbers, a property owner and voter in Kansas City, Missouri. “It hurts the people of Kansas City.”
White, of course, doesn’t set the fair market value for properties, but he argued that the increases were justified and staunchly defended the status quo, with Jackson County going so far as to sue its own residents over the controversial process.
“I know a lot of people who are essentially being forced out of their houses,” KCMO voter Sandra Handley said. “I think that's an awful thing, and surely we have some choices other than that.”
By Tuesday, the signatures had been gathered, the court battles waged and it was time for voters to render their verdict in a recall election.
“I voted to recall Frank,” Handley said. “I feel bad about it, but it seems like the right answer.”
That sentiment wasn’t universal.
“I think everybody makes mistakes,” Jackson County voter Paul Landes told KSHB 41 News on Monday. “Everybody does good things. I don't think he’s done enough to be recalled.”
But plenty of voters expressed frustration with White.
“I voted to recall,” Independence voter Bruce Marriott said, “because there's too much going on as far as taxes being raised up. We can't afford all these things like that.”
Stubbers is among those who appealed in 2019, paying for an appraisal that the county’s Board of Equalization accepted. He got another appraisal in 2023, but the county refused to accept it during that appeal.
“They said ... I was [still] going to have to pay for $250,000 higher value than the appraisal — just patently wrong,” Stubbers said.
After a record number of property assessment appeals in 2019 and 2023, the State Tax Commission stepped in to cap residential property increases at no more than 15% in 2023 and again in 2025, but commercial property valuations became the flashpoint during this year’s reassessment cycle.
“It seems like it's time to do something new,” Handley said. “This has gone on long enough. I don't know who the next person will be, that's sort of the problem, but I think we need somebody new.”
Marriott insisted it wasn’t personal toward White, a revered figure from the Royals' playoff heydays of the 1970s and 1980s.
“I think he's an excellent personality and all those things, but for some reason, he's being unreasonable with the taxes,” Marriott said.
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