Next month, the city of Independence will ask its residents to do something for the first time in its nearly 200-year history: approve a general obligation bond.
The $197 million property tax measure would fund projects around the city that leaders say are necessary and, in some cases, overdue. But some think Independence has an uphill battle in light of recent controversies over property tax assessments in Jackson County.
The ballot will include three separate bond questions targeting public safety, infrastructure and historic restoration. Each question can pass on its own separate from the others, but they will all need 57% support to pass.
Most of the $130 million aimed at improving public safety would go toward building a new police campus.
"This justice center campus would allow us to take parts of the police department that are scattered around the city onto a single campus, and lets us upgrade our facilities for training and for housing our police," Dr. Bridget McCandless, a city councilmember in Independence, told KCUR's Up To Date.
