Keep investing in the East Side.

For generations, Kansas City's East Side was left out of the development boom that reshaped downtown, the Plaza, and the suburbs. Banks and private capital routinely passed it by, so good projects stalled for lack of that last piece of financing. In 2017 voters created a dedicated tool to change that: a one-eighth-cent sales tax that pools local dollars to fund economic development inside a defined Central City district. That authorization is now scheduled to expire on September 30, 2027.

Question 3 renews the existing one-eighth-cent (1/8%) Central City Economic Development sales tax for another 10 years, at the same rate, under Section 67.1305 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri. The money funds economic-development projects inside the district bounded by 9th Street on the north, Gregory Boulevard on the south, The Paseo on the west, and Indiana Avenue on the east. A citizen CCED Sales Tax Board reviews developer applications and recommends projects to the City Council, with the program now administered by the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City for tighter oversight and steadier funding rounds.

This is the primary dedicated funding stream for reinvestment in Kansas City's historically disinvested urban core. Since 2017 it has put more than $88 million into 58 projects and generates roughly $10 million a year, financing jobs, small and locally owned businesses, early-childhood facilities, housing, and neighborhood revitalization that private capital alone has not delivered. If the renewal fails, the tax simply expires after September 30, 2027, and the East Side loses its only sales-tax-funded development engine.

A YES vote keeps the sales tax exactly where it is, at the same one-eighth-cent rate, for 10 more years. Shoppers see no increase, because this renews a tax that is already in place rather than creating a new one. It keeps roughly $10 million a year flowing into East Side jobs, businesses, and neighborhoods instead of letting the program lapse in 2027.