ORDINANCE NO. 250841
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Sponsor: Councilmember Wes Rogers
Repealing Ordinance No. 190793 and eliminating a 10-year term limit for property tax abatements offered for jobs relocating from certain Kansas counties to the City.
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WHEREAS, the City of Kansas City was the site of an economic “Border War,” in which the States of Missouri and Kansas provided competing tax-incentives to relocate business and employers to either side of State Line within the same regional labor market; and
WHEREAS, both the State of Missouri and the State of Kansas recognized the practice of providing incentives to relocate businesses within the Kansas City metropolitan labor market as destructive and destabilizing; and
WHEREAS, the “Missouri Border Counties” primarily affected by the aforementioned practice were determined to be the counties of Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte; and
WHEREAS, the “Kansas Border Counties” primarily affected by the aforementioned practice were determined to be the counties of Johnson, Miami, and Wyandotte; and
WHEREAS, the State of Missouri and the State of Kansas agreed to a “Border War Truce” in 2019, to end the destructive practice of providing tax incentives to relocate businesses and jobs across State Line within the Kansas City metropolitan area; and
WHEREAS, the Governor of Missouri signed the “Border War Truce” into Missouri law through Missouri Senate Bill 182 on June 11, 2019, to prohibit tax abatements and other incentives from being offered to companies to relocate from Kansas Border Counties (Johnson, Miami, or Wyandotte) to Missouri Border Counties (Cass, Clay, Jackson, or Platte), which has since expired in August 2025 without legislative action to extend the sunset; and
WHEREAS, in compliance with the State-initiated “Border War Truce,” the City of Kansas City passed Ordinance No. 190793, placing a 10-year limit on property tax abatements and other incentives offered for the relocation of any existing job from the Kansas Border Counties to Kansas City; and
WHEREAS, the City of Kansas City is empowered, directly or through one or more agencies, including the Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority (“LCRA”), the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (“PIEA”), the Kansas City, Missouri Port Authority (“PortKC”), the Tax Increment Financing Commission (“TIF Commission”), and others to offer public incentives for economic development projects in the form of, among other things, a capture of payments in lieu of taxes or abatement or exemption, in whole or in part, of real property taxes; and
WHEREAS, the City desires to maintain the “Border War Truce,” and recognizes that providing competing incentives to relocate businesses and jobs from Kansas Border Counties to Missouri Counties and from Missouri Border Counties to Kansas Border Counties is a destructive practice, that undermines potential development for the region as a whole; and
WHEREAS, the City has observed that Kansas Border Counties and the State of Kansas have authorized tax incentives through STAR Bonds that violate the spirit and provisions of the “Border War Truce;” and
WHEREAS, given these developments, Kansas City believes it is appropriate to eliminate the current restrictions to maintain competitive parity while preserving its commitment to responsible regional economic development; NOW THEREFORE,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:
Section 1. That Ordinance No. 190973, as amended, is hereby repealed.
Section 2. That the 10-year term limit for property tax abatements offered for jobs relocating from certain Kansas counties to the City is hereby nullified.
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Approved as to form:
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Emalea Kohler
Associate City Attorney