KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Wyandotte County organization has a proposal for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas it believes could save the county millions of dollars for public health and other services.
Justice for Wyandotte, a grassroots organization founded in 2020, “pushes for creating sustainable communities through empowering people and pushing for honest and fair governance,” according to co-founder Nikki Richardson.
The organization played a pivotal role in providing mental health resources and support for women harmed by former Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department detective Roger Golubski.
“We are often times the front lines when people are going through grief and trauma on their pathway to justice,” Richardson said.
That’s meant relying on various community organizations as partners over the years, organizations Richardson has seen take hits from cuts on the local and federal level.
“We know our community, and we know that the health disparities are quite large, and it started to concern us,” Richardson said.
That’s when she stated taking a look at the UG’s budget, specifically the Community Services section, which includes health, transportation, aging and disability, parks and recreation, the election office, and other services.
She attended a number of the UG’s DotteTalks, community budget conversations held ahead of the budget vote in late August.
“The community services portion of our budget, this is the people’s budget,” Richardson said. “I expected our community services to be a lot larger.”
Wyandotte County currently has planned $112 million worth of budgeted expenses.
"There’s so many things that we’re trying to tackle at the same time," said Dr. Shelley Kneuvean, the UG's Chief Financial Officer.
Community Services was allocated 23% of the UG's budget, and public safety needs will take 44% of the budget.
"You can’t have a community that is strong unless it is healthy and it is safe," Richardson said.
Richardson believes those efforts go hand in hand, for instance, when it comes to housing people in the jail with mental health issues.
“We're asking for an additional $10 million to go into our county's budget to make sure that all of those areas have enough pull for whatever it is they need to make sure we're healthy and safe,” Richardson said.
She calls this proposal "A Healthy 33%," an initiative responding to anticipated federal and state cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare programs Wyandotte County residents rely on.
“We believe after so many federal and state health cuts over the last several months, especially with the passing of the "Big, Beautiful Bill," that we need to increase that allocation to a healthy 33%," Richardson said.
According to a REACH Healthcare Foundation report, 13,000 fewer Kansans could enroll in Medicaid under the "Big Beautiful Bill," including over 1,000 Wyandotte County residents.
“It didn’t seem to be on our elected officials’ radar that as the federal level is starting to restructure how they’re looking at healthcare, we at the county level also need to be looking at how we need to restructure to make sure that we’re taking care of ourselves,” Richardson said.
Justice for Wyandotte’s proposal comes at a time when the UG commission is set to vote on whether it will exceed revenue neutral, a decision it voted against in 2024 in order to not collect more property tax revenue after public outcry.
“I know it is seen as a property tax solution, but a lot of people didn’t see much difference in their property tax as a result of going revenue neutral, and we saw a lot of cuts,” Richardson said.
Thursday’s vote by commissioners will determine the next steps for Richardson’s proposal once commissioners know how much money the UG has to work with.
So far, she says most of the commissioners she has spoken with have been responsive to her idea.
“I think we struggle in Wyandotte County with being proactive,” Richardson said. “This is their opportunity to be proactive with their budget, and our main goal and focus as a mission is to take care of Wyandotte County.”
The revenue neutral public hearing is at 7:00 p.m. Thursday in the commission chambers at City Hall, 701 North 7th Street Trafficway.
