Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog enumerated a long list of the city’s successes in his annual State of the City speech Tuesday — along with one particular request for residents. “If you live in Overland Park you will get in the mail a ballot. Please check ‘yes’ on the sales tax and help us maintain the streets that our residents expect,” he said. Skoog’s personal plea (city administrations are not allowed to campaign for ballot issues) was in reference to the June 22 mail-in ballot that will ask city residents to raise the one-eighth-cent sales tax to a three-eighth-cent tax to be [...]

The Prairie Village City Council on Monday spent more than two hours discussing housing-related topics in the city’s ongoing and, at times, fraught debate over how to address affordability concerns. Monday’s meeting was the first time the city council formally waded back into the housing discussion since approving hotly contested housing recommendations last summer. After Monday’s discussion, the city council unanimously directed city staff to prioritize two topics — short-term rentals and addressing long-standing concerns over teardown-rebuilds — for future discussions. Source: Prairie Village Post

Shawnee residents will likely be asked to vote on a new version of the city’s “parks and pipes” sales tax later this year that would allow some of the money raised to be used for something new. This week, the Shawnee City Council gave its initial blessing to new language for the proposed ⅛-cent sales tax during a council committee meeting. The move comes after months of sometimes-tense discussion over the future of the tax.  The revision, if ultimately approved by voters, would allow the revenue generated from the tax to be used with more “flexibility,” councilmembers say. Source: Prairie Village Post