Kansas City isn’t a colony babysat by King George. It can handle its own COVID aid
From getting the shaft to getting babysat, Kansas Citians have been treated like colonists when it comes to federal COVID-19 aid.
That’s the fiery, accurate appraisal of the not-normally-fiery Mayor Quinton Lucas — who Monday blasted Missouri legislators for wanting to form an oversight committee to monitor how local governments spend their latest COVID-19 stimulus funds under the federal American Rescue Plan signed into law last month.
The mayor is quite properly livid — as everyone in Kansas City should be.
“Either you believe in representative government or you don’t,” Lucas told a press conference announcing the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions. “Is Kansas City just a colony of a bunch of voiceless people who have no idea what they can do, or are you going to actually trust the people of Kansas City to do something?”
Bless old King George, Lucas is right.
Just remember how shortchanged Kansas City was in the first round of aid last year. It’s really jaw-dropping: Missouri handed out $521 million in federal stimulus and Kansas City got — nothing. Instead, the money went to counties, from which Kansas City has had to sit up and beg. Jackson County made the city wait months and months. Platte County finally ponied up $1.1 million last month, about a year later than warranted.
Lucas notes that Clay County was quick to send stimulus money to the city last year — which was then able to spend $3 million for small business relief in parts of Kansas City that rest in Clay County. That’s how it was supposed to work.
Why was a major city such as Kansas City made to sniff for tidbits on the ground? Well, back then, Kansas City was a few thousand residents short of the 500,000 required for direct federal aid, sorry. And federal aid disbursed through the state went to counties, sorry. Two slaps in the face.
In contrast, the half-city/half-county government of St. Louis got $32 million for being a city, and another $173.5 million for being a county. Figure that one out.
Now the state General Assembly wants to babysit how Kansas City and other local governments spend their American Rescue Plan money? It’s vexation without representation.
And something even worse, according to our mayor.
“I think, in some ways, it’s inherent racism to continue to suggest time and time again that cities, particularly your larger blue cities — the ones with most of the Black folks, most of the Latinos, most of the minorities and a number of others — are the ones that actually don’t know how to handle their own money,” Lucas says. “It’s insulting.”
And inarguably condescending.
It also contradicts all notions of local-is-best government, which you would think conservative Republicans in Missouri would be delighted to promote. Will they next tell families how to spend their stimulus checks?
Where Congress and local governments see a boon, the Missouri General Assembly appears to see a boondoggle. Hardly. People are still scraping by, and the American Rescue Plan’s direct aid to cities this time around — Kansas City has initially received some $95 million — is urgently needed.
From helping small businesses to meeting the government payroll and providing essential city services such as mowing the parks and filling potholes, city leaders are fully capable of deciding what our city needs.
Kansas City is not a colony of Jefferson City, but hypocritical lawmakers only remember that when it suits them.