In his seventh State of the City address Wednesday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas emphasized the growth of the city and previewed its proposed budget, which will be presented to the city council Thursday.
Lucas included a plea in his speech for voters to renew the city’s 1% earnings tax this April, which he said is “a key part” of ensuring the city can fund public safety, infrastructure projects and its workforce.
Amid the city’s struggle to prevent an immigration detention center from being built and welcoming the World Cup games and teams, like Argentina and England, that the city will host this summer, Lucas also emphasized that all people are welcome here, whether they’re immigrants or visitors.
“The growth that the world will see this summer, as Kansas City, one of America's great cities and great stories, is on display,” he said. “No matter who you are, where you're from, where are you going, or what you're dealing with, you belong here. You are welcome here, and together, the state of your city, our city is strongest when you thrive.”
In his address, Lucas outlined a proposed $2.5 billion budget for the city’s 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins in May. That’s the same amount the city budgeted for the previous fiscal year. The proposed budget calls for more public safety spending, meaning most other departments and city projects will see cuts.
“There are real cuts that the people of Kansas City are taking to ensure that we can have both our rainy day fund preserved and not have any negative impacts on our workforce long term,” Lucas said.
Here is what the mayor touched on in his State of the City address, and what he previewed with the city budget:
Police funding
The proposed budget would give 75% of the city’s general fund to public safety, including the Kansas City fire and police departments. Lucas called for a police budget of $363 million. That’s nearly $18 million more than last year, which set its own record for police funding at more than $345 million.
Lucas said the money will go toward pay increases for the fire department, and hiring more police officers and 9-1-1 call operators. In his speech, Lucas said the city hopes the State Board of Police Commissioners will “fulfill their pledge” to hire 50 more police officers and 20 new dispatchers, and give officer pay increases.
“We also ask the police board to craft ways to reduce the millions of dollars in liabilities that are straining the police budget and public safety delivery in our community,” Lucas said. “The current trajectory in litigation costs is unsustainable for the police department’s budget.”
Missouri law requires Kansas City to allocate at least 25% of its general revenues every year to the police department, but the city does not control how that money is spent. The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, which includes four members appointed by the Missouri governor and the city’s mayor, controls that money once it’s appropriated.
Royals stadium
Lucas promised the city “will get a deal done in 2026” for a downtown Royals stadium. He said the city has kept strong relationships with the team and that Kansas City meets the Royals’ qualifications.
Washington Square Park, near Union Station and Crown Center, has emerged as a leading location for the team, though Lucas said the decision is ultimately up to the Royals. The 18th and Vine district is another possible location, promoted by a development group that includes restaurateur Ollie Gates.
“Retaining the Royals is not about sports, it’s about economic development for our city, retaining thousands of union jobs in Kansas City, enhancing activity in our urban center, and ensuring downtown Kansas City is forever a place people, businesses and visitors want to be and want to invest,” Lucas said.
Lucas also said the city will work with the owners of the Truman Sports Complex, Jackson County, and communities like Independence and Raytown that surround the stadiums to ensure the complex is redeveloped. At the same time, Lucas called out the economic border war with Kansas, which has already successfully lured the Chiefs to relocate to Wyandotte and Johnson counties.
“Selective truces with entire industry exceptions, historically large incentives in adjacent communities to develop empty fields, and debasing tax revenues across the region for wins realized only by a few and rarely experienced by our schools, our taxpayers, or our public services will not form the basis of regional cooperation,” Lucas said.
The Royals publicly struck Overland Park off their list of possible stadium sites and Clay County pulled out of talks with the team.
Housing and economic development
Lucas touted the city’s investment in housing — including building 10,000 units of affordable housing and enacting the tenants' right-to-counsel program — as one of his greatest achievements as mayor.
“New buildings are great, but we will have no greater legacy from our tenure than the tens of thousands of Kansas Citians we will launch into better, safer and more stable housing,” Lucas said. “I could not be prouder of our work.”
The proposed budget provides more than $5 million for year-round emergency homeless shelters and homelessness prevention and $2.6 million for the right-to-counsel program. That’s about the same as last year’s budget. The city also recently began its Housing Gateway Program, which will invest $1 million to expand the housing stock and help chronic homelessness.
Lucas also stressed the city is prioritizing economic development. He said the city will budget $500,000 to modernize building and zoning codes and remove barriers for permitting approvals. He also said the city will continue its efforts to streamline services for small-business owners through programs like the Small Business Task Force and the city’s Back to Business Program, and integrating small-business support and marketing into KC2026’s World Cup efforts.
“Growth, my friends, is important,” Lucas said. “Growth in revenues offsets our costs. Growth in our population allows us to enhance our service delivery and growth as our central role in our region as a cultural crossroads allows us to continue to drive revenues and build major events. We can do all of that, delivering the services our citizens deserve, without raising taxes when we continue to invest in growth and economic development.”
Infrastructure improvements
Lucas highlighted transportation as a priority for the city in the next budget cycle. The KC Streetcar’s riverfront extension is set to open this spring, and the city is currently studying an east-west streetcar line through the 18th and Vine district and to the University of Kansas Health System.
Lucas pledged nearly $40 million to resurface about 300 lane miles of roads in the city and more than $4 million for the city’s Vision Zero program, which aims to end traffic fatalities by the end of the decade.
The road resurfacing goal is down from last year, and the Vision Zero budget is significantly reduced. The city adopted nearly $8 million for the program during the last budget cycle, though more than $2 million of that went to specific projects.
Lucas also said the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority will “receive steady support” from the city in the next fiscal year, though he did not disclose how much the city would spend on the bus system.
Ultimately, the city spent about $87 million on bus service last year to avoid drastic service cuts, after originally budgeting $78 million for the KCATA. The bus agency and the city have been feuding for years, and the mayor called for “expanded regional support” for funding the agency, like a regional sales tax.
“We will work with KCATA leadership to find ways to maintain quality service that supports all of our people throughout the region, no matter where they will work,” Lucas said.
Employee salaries
Throughout his speech, Lucas emphasized the people who make Kansas City important, including city staff. Kansas City implemented a hiring freeze last year in response to a projected budget deficit.
About $930 million will go toward city employees’ salaries and benefits. Lucas stressed that the city will not have mass layoffs and will fulfill its pension and health care obligations to its employees, but that a key part of that relies on the renewal of the earnings tax.
“As long as I'm here, ladies and gentlemen, we are never going broke,” Lucas said. “We will make sure that we won't have forced reductions because we couldn't control our spending. We will never stop letting our workers know that through pay, through benefits, through retirement pensions, we appreciate their work.”
