Jackson County Legislature votes to set tax levy for 2025

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A crisis averted and at least some Jackson County leaders are breathing a sigh of relief Monday after a vote to pass the tax levy nearly failed to get through the Legislature.

“198 years, you know how many times we failed to pass this levy? None, because today people decided to let politics define what should be done with this government,” Jalen Anderson, the 1st district At-Large Legislator, said.

Tuesday is Missouri’s deadline for counties to set their tax levies for the upcoming year.

The first vote failed 4-1 on Monday. Just one shy of what was needed for the levy to pass.

That briefly opened up uncertainty into how the county was going to be able to collect taxes. It’s primary source of revenue.

Shortly after, Jackson County Legislator Vanessa Huskey changed her vote, giving it enough to pass.

Jackson County Executive Frank White wanted the tax levy left at exactly where it is. While a group of legislators led by Sean Smith and Manny Abarca proposed rolling it back, which they say would give taxpayers a small break, and not voting on the issue until that was done.

The only problem is the state deadline to certify the levy is Tuesday at 5 p.m. so the work had to get done on Monday.

After the first vote, the measure had the most votes in favor of passage. The room thought the problem was solved. But they were quickly reminded that in order for something to pass, not just the most votes are needed, but the majority of the nine person legislature has to vote in favor, but it only had four votes.

White said he had never seen something like this in his entire career.

“We should not be in a position to even want to play these types of games with people’s livelihoods,” Megan Marshall, the 3rd district At-Large Legislator, said.

The chair was forced to call a recess. That is when White came into the room, and for the next 30 minutes, the agenda was at a standstill and the work to get one legislator to flip her vote began.

And that’s exactly what she did.

“I just want to commend the legislators to who hung around to get this done so the county can operate and we don’t have to even fathom laying people off,” White said.

County Administrator Troy Schulte tells FOX4 what we saw happen Monday was unprecedented in every sense of the word. As the ability for the county to pay its first responders, pave their roads, to simply do the business of the county, for a moment was in question.

“This is no everyday Monday or everyday vote. This is a vote to make sure government can function,” Anderson said.

“That’s the difference between Jalen’s argument and reality. There’s $90 million in the savings account of the county,” Abarca said. “We’re not going to go bankrupt by rolling the levy back.”

It now heads to White for final approval.

“I just want to commend the legislator’s to who hung around to get this done so the county can operate and we don’t have to even fathom laying people off,” White said.

“ You can read the ordinance here, which explains the state constitutional requirements and county laws being followed to set the county’s levy rate.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.