Wyandotte County leaders will start 2024 with a new plan for funding community programs. Earlier this month, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, approved an ordinance creating a Community Benefits Fund. Beginning in January, half of all administrative and issuance fees paid by developers receiving tax incentives through tools like industrial revenue bonds (IRBs) or tax increment financing (TIF) will be placed into the fund and used for community programs. The fund aims to leverage fees from developments in the western part of the county to support historically underserved or underdeveloped portions of the county. Funds will support the senior home repair program, affordable housing trust fund and licensed childcare programs. The Mayor’s Business and Economic Development Taskforce, which is chaired by former Fourth District Commissioner Harold Johnson, spurred the idea. “The Community Benefits Ordinance makes good on the promise made decades ago that development on the west side of Kansas City, Kansas, would be leveraged in order to improve all areas of KCK, specifically east of I-635,” Johnson said in a news release. In the coming weeks, Mayor Tyrone Garner and UG commissioners will work to appoint 11 people to a the Community Benefits Advisory Board, which will make recommendations to the UG for the use of the funds. The advisory board will be comprised exclusively of county residents and business owners in the county.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal
