Kansas City, Mo — On Thursday, May 21, Kansas City City Council passed Ordinances 260483 and 260484, which will allow language to appear on Kansas City, Mo., voter ballots for the Aug. 4 election regarding the General Obligation (GO) Bonds for the Housing Trust Fund (HTF) and capital improvements for City convention facilities.
Proposed during a May 19 Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee meeting, these two ballot measures will inquire voters on two separate GO Bond questions: one to allocate no more than $100 million toward financing capital improvements for City convention facilities — to which the Committee amended May 19 to include language of City buildings older than 1950 to qualify City Hall for improvements — and two to allocate no more than $100 million toward the HTF and affordable housing construction.
The suggested ballot language presented by Kansas City City Treasurer Kimberly Carter, Convention and Entertainment Facilities Executive Director Kimiko Gilmore and Director of Housing and Community Development Blaine Proctor read as follows:
Ordinance Number 260483 — “Shall the City of Kansas City, Missouri issue its General Obligation Bonds in an amount not to exceed $75,000,000.00 for the purpose of paying for the acquisition, construction, renovation, improvement, equipping and furnishing of city convention and entertainment facilities including related parking structures?”
Ordinance number 260484 —“Shall the city of Kansas City, Missouri issue its general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $75,000,000.00 for the purpose of affordable housing through the rehabilitation, renovation and construction of houses and buildings including blight removal to provide affordable housing for very low-to-moderate-income households?”
While this was the original proposed ballot language, during the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee meeting, Mayor Quinton Lucas and members of City Council voted to amend aspects of this language including the dollar amount for both ordinances — increasing the previously proposed $75 million amounts to $100 million to go before Kansas City voters.
For both GO Bond usages — if approved — Gilmore shared during the Committee meeting on May 19 that this would provide a no tax increase for Kansas City residents and instead, funds would be utilized and rolled-off from existing GO-Bond debt.
Funds for the convention center — and City Hall as amended — would be split into two-year phases — allocating $50 million for the first year and $50 million for the second year. However, for the HTF, the department would anticipate to utilize funds over a five-year period at $20 million per year.
“The issuance itself is intentionally phased over multiple years and this will allow our levy to remain stable,” Carter said in a presentation, May 19.
Carter additionally mentioned that there will be no anticipated impact to the General Fund, regardless of election results. If the GO Bond ballot measures are approved, the added debt would be offset by property tax revenue, which would otherwise decline with retirement debt. And if they are rejected, there will be no additional debt service and that the property tax revenue would then decline naturally with retirement debt.
“These proposals are about stewardship,” Gilmore said during the Committee meeting on May 19. “Maintaining and modernizing public assets that support jobs, tourism, economic development and civic pride in a fiscally responsible way.”
The GO Bond Program — or GO KC — was originally approved by voters in April 2017 as an $800 million infrastructure restoration plan and has most recently allocated $125 million in 2022 toward the parks department and its facilities for upgrades and maintenance and in April 2025 for Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) for structural improvements through Kansas City voter approval.
$200 million, which City Council members shared is currently available in tax-bond issuance, will go before Kansas City voters for approval on the Aug. 4 election.
“I am thrilled to see this put on the ballot,” HTF Advisory Board Member Geoff Jolley said in an interview. “The Housing Trust Fund has a tremendous impact on the supply of housing in the community by increasing the number of units produced each year; I am excited about what the Trust Fund could do over five years.”
Housing Trust Fund
The HTF was created in 2018 through the passing of Ordinance 180719, with a mission to prevent neighborhood gentrification and eviction, while also developing new, affordable housing models.
Through the HTF — which offers gap financing as well as the development and/or preservation of units at or below 60% Area Median Income (AMI), proctor shared — 365 affordable housing units have seen completion as well as 2,635 units, which received funding for a total of 3,316 units between 2021 to 2026.
With this proposed $100 million in GO Bonds, the Housing Department is estimated to have the capacity to construct over 3,571 units of affordable housing over the next five years.
“The Housing Trust Fund is very well managed by City staff and the board with a high degree of transparency and accountability that should provide voters comfort that their tax dollars are being well managed,” Jolley said in an interview.
While in 2022 Kansas City voters approved a $50 million GO Bond to invest toward the HTF and affordable housing — that amount, Proctor shared during a presentation May 19, is set to expire in 2026.
And while the Housing Department described the benefits this bond allocation would have on the housing community — which is 64,000 units in demand — they have not mentioned whether or not the units it anticipates to build with this funding will be union or if they will have a prevailing wage requirement.
Julia Williams — a Kansas City native — is a reporter and digital producer for The Labor Beacon. A University of Missouri School of Journalism alumna, she previously served as the editor-in-chief of The Northeast News before joining The Labor Beacon staff.
Williams’s grandfather was a Claycomo Ford Motor Company retiree and avid UAW Local 249 supporter, allowing her to understand the union difference from a young age.
In her free time, Williams enjoys spending time with her family, traveling to see her friends and hanging out at home with her cat, Greta. She loves a good cup of coffee, seeing local, live music and shopping secondhand. With a passion for storytelling, she hopes to bring her knowledge of journalistic integrity to the Kansas City union community — giving union and labor workers a voice, while holding people in powerful positions accountable.
