Let’s Talk About how the City is Funded.

The City of Raytown’s income is dependent on taxes and fees. Pictured are budgeted revenues for Raytown for 2021-22. The actual document, including the budget for last year, may be found at https://www.raytown.mo.us/vertical/Sites/%7B3A1DBD03-39C2-43FA-8CC9-95B16E6438CB%7D/uploads/2021-22_Budget_Book_Final.pdf Several sources of income are required to go to specific places. Such as sales taxes that were implemented for Transportation, Parks, or Public Safety. So while General Sales Taxes are the highest source of income for the city overall, it is divided between several areas and can only be used for those items. Service charges, the next highest source of income for the city, are mainly from the sewer bills, and those funds from the sewer bills can only be used to fund the sanity sewer system and pay for those expenses. Franchise fees are the highest source of income. These are fees paid by utilities, like Spire, Evergy, and cable companies, to name a few, for the use of the right of way. These are often passed on to the consumers based on the usage of the services. You only pay the franchise fee on cable if you have cable. Property taxes only bring in about 7% of the city’s revenue, with $1,934,200 estimated revenue from it for 2021-22. The total revenue for the city is $26,187,234. If we remove the grants and Sanitary Sewer changes from the total, that leaves $18,230,534 that the city receives from taxes and fees. Based on the US Census Bureau data from 2020, the city has 30,012 people. Dividing the revenues, minus sewer and grants, the $18,230,534 divided by the population is $607.44 per person. If the $18,230,534 is divided by the number of housing units, that’s an average of $1,333.71 per household a year, $111.14 per month to keep the roads plowed, police operating, stray dogs picked up, parks, and all the other things the city provides its citizens, including trying to maintain the aging infrastructure of the roads, sidewalks, and stormwater system. How does this relate to the ballot measures? You might be wondering, well, that average of $111.14 per month isn’t going to keep up with what is needed, and the much-needed repairs won’t happen.