Youth services may push local sales taxes to new heights

In November, voters in Jackson and Clay counties will consider new sales taxes to pay for services for at-risk children and youth.

As The Kansas City Star reports, the proposals follow the recommendations of a 2014 Mid-America Regional Council plan to use a new sales tax to fill in the gaps in services that keep kids in school and away from harm. Several counties in Missouri have passed similar taxes.

If approved, the taxes would add to what’s already a fairly high sales-tax burden. According to data collected by the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, Kansas City, Missouri, ranks 28th among cities with more than 200,000 people. 

Kansas City is on the upper end even though the state sales tax is relatively low at 4.225 percent. City and county taxes provide the real sock. In the Platte County portion of Kansas City, the local sales-tax rate is 4.25 percent. The Kansas City section of Jackson County is not far behind at 4.125 percent. Beneficiaries include parks, police, firefighters, the zoo and Kauffman and Arrowhead stadiums.

Of course, the 8-plus percent sales-tax rate is just for starters. Kansas City, Missouri, collects a 2 percent tax at restaurants. Special taxing districts envelop the Country Club Plaza and other portions of the city, charging usually between 0.5 and 1.0 percent on purchases. The streetcar pushed the total tax rate on food and beverages consumed at the Power & Light District to a verging-on-European rate of 12.35 percent.

High sales taxes are a metrowide phenomenon. The state sales tax in Kansas is on the robust side at 6.5 percent, and the total rate climbs above 10 percent at Corbin Park, Prairiefire and other destinations where special taxing districts quietly add to the price of commerce. 

The initiatives to better fund programs for at-risk kids seem worthwhile. But so did the other tax increases now collected at cash registers around the metro.