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The Missouri General Assembly approved a lot of funding bills that have a direct impact in Kansas City, but Governor Mike Kehoe used his line-item veto power to cut some of those items.
Kehoe issued 208 vetoes, totaling nearly $300 million, on the General Assembly's approved funding. The statewide cuts impact nearly 30 programs in the Kansas City area.
"As Governor, I have a constitutional obligation to balance the budget, and our administration will always follow the Constitution and rule of law," Governor Kehoe said. "We support funding for education, and have proudly championed tax cuts for hard-working Missouri families and the desperately needed resources for our fellow Missourians affected by natural disasters this spring. However, these initiatives do not come without budgetary consequences."
Several Missouri lawmakers met Monday night with their constituents in South Kansas City to discuss the budgetary measures and bills approved in the 2025 legislative session.
Democratic Representative Tiffany Price, Republican Senator Mike Cierpiot, Democratic Representative Anthony Ealy, Democratic Senator Patty Lewis, Democratic Representative Pattie Mansur, and Democratic Representative Mark Sharp were at the meeting to hear their citizens' concerns on this year's legislative action.
Price expressed her concerns about Governor Kehoe's vetoes and cuts in federal funding.
"If we want our people to be better, then why are we suddenly cutting everything?" Price said. "If we want our children to be better, if we want our city to be better, then everybody has to be taken care of as a whole."
State funding is an important issue for the dozens of people who met with state legislators, whether the money is for fixing roads in South Kansas City or fixing the lack of affordable childcare.
Kids Win Missouri is a statewide organization that advocates for accessible childcare and works on solutions for families in need. Kansas City resident Jessica Tran now works with the organization's outreach team, but saw the metro's childcare crisis firsthand when she was a childcare provider.
"We had so many wait lists, we had them broken down by age groups and siblings," Tran said. "We had people calling every single day."
Kids Win Missouri is launching a program with the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) called Child Care Exchange. It shares money between the state, providers, and local cities to help open up spots for accessible childcare.
"It's really exciting to be able to hopefully start this new innovation in Missouri and to make childcare more affordable for families, not only in Kansas City, but all throughout the state," Deputy Director Casey Hanson said.
The Missouri General Assembly approved $5 million for the program, but it was cut to $2.5 million.
Hanson said the funding is better than nothing, but expects fewer kids to get into Missouri childcare this year.
"With $5 million, you're able to do more," Hanson said. "With $2.5 million, you're able to do half of that. We're still really positive about having that $2.5 million to work with and just getting the program launched, and then hopefully next year, going back and getting a bigger appropriation.”
A veto override is possible, but legislators at South KC's meeting on Monday night explained it was unlikely in the upcoming September session.
Representative Price sees funding for South Kansas City as a priority.
"The money is there, so let's put it where it needs to go," Price said.
A lack of childcare and childcare funding are two of the issues South Kansas City neighbors hope legislators address in their upcoming session. For Tran, it's a personal mission to show legislators the impact funding childcare and the Child Care Exchange has in South Kansas City.
"[Missouri] did half, and we're going to take that half and we're going to be appreciative of that half," Tran said. "We're going to show them that it works and we're going to show that it's a great program and it's going to do everything that we want it to do and probably more."
Kids Win Missouri expects to have the program running in Kansas City within the next few months.
