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Kansas City Mayor Lucas sues Missouri over law requiring city to spend more on police

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the state of Missouri, asking the courts to halt the enforcement of a new state law that will require Kansas City to spend more on its police force.

The suit, filed in Jackson County, argues that the law violates a provision in the Missouri Constitution that restricts the legislature from passing unfunded mandates to local governments. It says the law would force Kansas City to cut funding from other government services like its fire department, road repairs and parks.

“The radical legislation provides no pay guarantees for our officers, will not hire a single police officer, and ignores the will and importance of Kansas City taxpayers, instead attempting to politicize policing in Kansas City at a time we sorely need bipartisan solutions to violent crime,” Lucas said in a statement.

The litigation is the latest episode in a long battle between Lucas and state policymakers on policing.

Kansas City is the only city in the state that lacks direct control over its police department. Under a 1939 law, the city’s police department is controlled by a board of five commissioners appointed almost entirely by the governor. Lucas, as mayor, is the board’s fifth member.

In addition to the state, Lucas’ lawsuit names as defendants Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is in charge of defending the state in legal actions, and the members of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, which oversees the city’s police department. As a member of the board, Lucas is both a plaintiff and a defendant in his official capacity in the case.

The lawsuit is in response to a bill passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature earlier this year that requires the city to spend 25% of its general revenue on the Kansas City Police Department — above the previous requirement of at least 20%. Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed the bill into law in June.

When state lawmakers passed the bill, they acknowledged that it violated the state constitution. A 1980 provision in the constitution called the Hancock Amendment prohibits state lawmakers from requiring cities to increase funding above existing levels unless the state government provides additional money.

Because of this provision, lawmakers simultaneously passed a measure that asks voters to approve an amendment to the constitution that would allow the law to take effect. Voters will decide on that amendment on Nov. 8.

The ballot measure known as Amendment 4 would give lawmakers the power for the next three years to increase the minimum level of funding Kansas City must devote to its police.

Gwendolyn Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, said in a statement that Lucas’ lawsuit made a compelling case for challenging the state legislature’s “unconstitutional power grab.”

“The legislature’s escalated assault on Kansas Citians and our right to decide how our tax dollars shall be spent must be stopped,” she said. “Failure to defeat Amendment 4 poses a major threat to the overall well-being and public safety of our city.”

Lucas’ lawsuit argues that the law would force Kansas City to spend more than $38 million on its police department and require the city to cut that amount from its fire department, road repairs and parks.

“In addition to ignoring the Constitution, the State legislature has unquestionably ignored the best interests of the City’s taxpayers who, having already been deprived of control over their own police force, will now also bear the burden of the State’s unfunded mandate,” the lawsuit said. “This action seeks to vindicate their rights.”

Because the legislature did not provide Kansas City additional funding for police, the law would have a negative fiscal impact on the city and would violate the constitution, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit states that enforcement of the law would be unconstitutional because it was signed before voters had a chance to approve the constitutional amendment. It asks a judge to stop any effort by the police board to increase the department’s funding above 20% of the city’s budget.

“In the Missouri General Assembly’s zeal to assert absolute State control over City taxpayer choices in public safety, it has overlooked the interests of the very people its measure is seemingly intended to help,” the lawsuit said.

Chris Nuelle, a spokesperson for Schmitt, said in a statement that “Lucas has yet again put politics over public safety.”

Schmitt will appear as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate on the same November ballot as the ballot measure that will enable the law to take effect.

“The Attorney General’s Office will continue to support the brave men and women of law enforcement, and we will vigorously defend the laws of the state of Missouri in this case,” Nuelle said. “Missourians deserve to feel safe in their communities, and we will continue to fight to ensure that they are.”

The state law was the culmination of a backlash by conservative legislators against a failed attempt by Lucas and the city council to assert more control over the city’s police budget.

In May 2021, Lucas and a supermajority of the council moved to reallocate $42 million from the police budget to establish a Community Services and Prevention Fund.

Under this initiative, police commissioners would be required to negotiate with the city on how the money would be spent. The plan would have funded police at the required 20% threshold, while allowing the city to control spending above that amount.

But the police board sued and prevailed when a circuit court judge ruled that the council violated state law and overstepped its authority to redirect police funding after it had approved the budget.

Republican state lawmakers decried the move by Lucas as an effort to cut funding from the police department. Lucas has denied this, arguing that the city consistently funds the department above the 20% threshold and had proposed increasing its appropriation by several million dollars to fund a new class of recruits.

State Rep. Doug Richey, an Excelsior Springs Republican, said in an interview that state lawmakers anticipated a lawsuit from the city when they passed the police spending bill.

“It was a reasonable move on the part of the General Assembly, it could have been far more of a punitive move, but there’s not really a punitive element in this statute,” he said. “It’s disappointing, but I’m not surprised.”

He said the lawsuit’s argument that the law would force Kansas City to cut funding from other services was “deceptive” because the city has historically allocated about 25% of its budget to police. In the current 2022-2023 fiscal year, the city appropriated 24.3% of its general revenues to the police.

“The comment where this will cost the city or will put the city in a position where they will have to pull funds from other services like fire, parks and things of that nature, that’s not true,” he said.