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At Health Forward Foundation, we’re committed to providing timely updates on key local and federal policy developments that impact the health and well-being of our communities. This resource is designed to help our advocacy partners stay connected to the issues, opportunities, and decisions shaping our region.
Commissioners are weighing whether to place a half-cent sales tax dedicated to emergency medical services on the November ballot. The tax would raise an estimated $1.2 million a year set aside solely for ambulance services, as the county’s EMS contract costs climb toward a projected $2.2 million next year. Supporters frame it as a way to shift some of the burden off property taxes and onto a broader base that includes visitors, while some residents have voiced concern about leaning on sales tax revenue, which can fall harder on households who are paid low wages.
In late May, the County Manager presented a proposed $1.91 billion budget that holds the line on taxes with no rate increase, even as county leaders cautioned about a widening gap between rising costs and revenue in the years ahead. The proposal now moves through a series of Board of Commissioners work sessions over the summer, followed by a public hearing and final adoption in August. There is an open invitation for residents to weigh in. Those dates can be found on the Johnson County website.
The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas have begun their 2027 budget process. Mayor Christal Watson has emphasized transparency and community infrastructure and service needs. There are several dates reserved for additional public budget workshops this July, followed by a public hearing and final adoption in August. Those dates can be found on UG’s website. Budget workshops and hearings are an important opportunity for residents to share their priorities with their elected representatives.
The Unified Government Board of Commissioners recently adopted a package of census tracts to be considered for inclusion in the federal Opportunity Zones 2.0. program ahead of the state’s June 1st deadline. Opportunity Zone investment can be a real asset for these neighborhoods if done in a way that benefits the people who already live there rather than displacing them. We will continue to monitor the roll out of the program, version 2.0. Thank you to our community partners, like Eastside Innovation, who worked to educate about how Opportunity Zones can be leveraged to support affordable housing projects and the economic well-being of the community.
Voters in Cass and Lafayette Counties will have the chance to vote on several county level positions in the August primary, including the Presiding Commissioner and County Prosecutor.
Visit the Missouri Secretary of State’s website to view a sample ballot to prepare to vote in the primary election on August 4th.
On July 4th, County Executive Phil LeVota signed an executive order creating a three-year property tax credit program, and the County Legislature made it law two days later. The credit applies to properties that were assessed at a value that increased more than 15 percent from one year to the next. The county also canceled the August delinquent land tax sale to verify the accuracy of tax records before any home is sold. That step alone kept more than 1,000 properties off the auction block. This relief is contested. The Independence and Fort Osage school districts have sued to stop the credits, and twelve districts earlier estimated roughly $196 million in losses over three years.
Voters will choose a County Executive and County Legislature in the August 4th primary and November 3rd general election. This is the first regular County Executive race since residents recalled the previous Executive in 2025.
Local elections shape the policies closest to people’s daily lives and broad participation helps ensure county government reflects the diverse experiences of the community. County governments hold decision-making power over many of the systems that most directly shape community health: public health departments, tax levies that provide funding for services, property assessments, election administration, jails and the sheriff’s office, roads, zone and housing policy. We encourage eligible Jackson County voters to educate themselves on the candidates and vote for the candidates most aligned with their desires for their community.
The primary election is set for August 4th and the general election for November 3rd. Voters in Kansas City, Missouri will vote on five KCMO-specific questions on the August 4th ballot. Question 1 asks voters whether the City should finance $100 million in bonds to continue to fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to support affordable housing development, preservation, and revitalization projects, with a focus on homes for families who are paid very low to moderate wages. Since its creation, the Housing Trust Fund has awarded more than $61 million which has provided financial support to over 3,000 housing units. However, the Kansas City region remains short around 64,000 affordable housing units. Approval of Question 1 will keep the property tax rate flat – it will not increase it. For approval, question 1 needs four-sevenths of the votes cast to be “yes” votes. Health Forward encourages voters to VOTE YES on KCMO QUESTION 1.
Question 3 asks Kansas City voters whether they should renew the one-eighth-cent Central City Economic Development (CCED) sales tax for 10 years. The funds from the CCED sales tax can be used to pay for affordable housing, small business support, and community-led revitalization projects on the Eastside of Kansas City, within the Central City area. The fund exists because community members organized to bring resources back into their own neighborhoods paid for by taxes generated in their neighborhoods. Since voters approved the sales tax in 2017, it has provided more than $88 million in funding for 58 housing, small business and other projects. Health Forward encourages voters to VOTE YES on KCMO QUESTION 3.
In April, Mayor Lucas introduced a three-ordinance package called “Fight the Blight” aimed at holding absentee owners accountable for vacant and neglected properties. The measure, Ordinance 260401, would expand the city’s vacant property registration program beyond buildings to also cover unimproved vacant land, or vacant lots with no structure on them.
The intent of the ordinance is to hold negligent owners accountable; however, community advocates have urged the city to pair accountability with support, so that the burden of new fees and inspection requirements don’t fall hardest on heirs’ property owners, longtime residents on fixed incomes, and the community gardeners and urban farmers already turning vacant lots into neighborhood assets.
The impacts of systemic discrimination in Kansas City’s urban-core neighborhoods have resulted in many vacant lots and reactivating that land is a real opportunity to invest in the community’s health. That’s why we support thoughtful redevelopment of these lots: returning vacant land to productive use can expand the supply of quality, affordable housing, bring amenities and green space closer to residents, and reinvest in the well-being of neighborhoods.
People purpose area
On June 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued an interim final rule, CMS-2026-2047, implementing the Medicaid work requirements from H.R 1, the budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress in 2025. Beginning January 1, 2027, adults ages 19 to 64 in states that expanded Medicaid must document at least 80 hours per month of work, job training, education, or community service to keep their coverage. This applies to Missouri, which expanded Medicaid; Kansas, which has not expanded, is not subject to the work requirement, though H.R. 1’s broader Medicaid changes still reduce coverage for Kansans.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates these requirements will not meaningfully increase employment. Instead, millions of people could lose coverage, largely because of paperwork and administrative barriers, even among those who are working or qualify for an exemption.
The biggest concern about the interim final rule is how states will determine who meets the medical frailty exemption. We will be engaged closely as states build out their systems to manage the Medicaid work requirements program and reverification process.
The public comment period on the interim final rule is open until July 31st. We encourage anyone with an interest to submit additional information to CMS for consideration. For more information, check out these slides from a recent advocacy webinar hosted by Families USA. As a reminder, this public comment process is considered administrative advocacy, so it does not count as a lobbying activity.
Place purpose area
On July 11, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law.This is the first major federal housing law in three decades.
The goals of the act are to increase the housing supply, reduce construction costs, and modernize the federal housing and community development programs that our communities rely on. It creates incentives to build new homes, establishes a program to convert abandoned buildings into housing, and authorizes new grants to modernize existing homes. That last piece matters here, because the age of Kansas City’s housing stock creates real health risks like lead exposure and mold that fall hardest on households earning low wages and communities of color. The law also restricts large institutional investors from buying up single-family homes, a practice that has been crowding first-time Black and Brown buyers out of the market and out of the opportunity to build wealth through homeownership.
This is a moment of real opportunity, and Health Forward will continue to track implementation of this legislation and to advocate for housing that is truly attainable.
Power purpose area
The biggest theme in the voting rights and access space this year is a coordinated effort by the federal government to take on a larger role in running elections, authority the Constitution has always left primarily to the states. Together these efforts could reshape who gets to vote and how.
One of these efforts is the SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship, like a passport or birth certificate, be presented in person to register or update a registration for federal elections. The bill passed the U.S. House in February but has since stalled in the Senate.
The Department of Justice made an unprecedented demand that states hand over their full voter rolls, including sensitive information like partial Social Security and driver’s license numbers, to be checked against a federal database and used to flag voters for removal. Most states have refused to provide this data based on privacy concerns, opting instead to only provide the publicly available voter data. However, the DOJ has now sued around 30 of them, and voting-rights groups have sued in return. Both Kansas and Missouri provided access to the publicly available voter data.
The United States Postal Service is also moving to reshape how people vote by mail for federal elections in accordance with a presidential executive order issued in March. Under the proposal, states would have to submit lists of voters approved to receive mail-in or absentee ballots, along with ballot barcode data, at least 30 days before mailing, and USPS could decline to deliver ballots to anyone not on the list or refuse ballot mailings from states that don’t participate.
The rule would apply to general, special, and runoff federal elections, though not to primaries or to military and overseas voters. Election officials warn that building these new systems on a compressed timeline ahead of the 2026 midterms risks confusion, errors, and voters not receiving their ballots in time — with rural communities, older adults, and differently abled voters, who rely most on voting by mail, likely to feel it first.
On June 25th, a federal judge blocked key parts of the underlying executive order, ruling that the President lacks the authority to set these rules, since the Constitution leaves the conduct of federal elections to the states. The administration is expected to appeal, and the Postal Service has said it still intends to finalize a rule by the end of July.
All of this is unfolding against a weakened backdrop for voting rights. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana v. Callais to limit Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the provision that for sixty years allowed voters to challenge district maps and election practices that dilute the power of voters of color. Missouri Congressional District 1 (MO-1), the St. Louis-based district that has had a Black majority for decades, survived Missouri’s 2025 mid-decade redraw intact. However, Callais may now give legal cover to dismantle it, since the ruling largely removes the Voting Rights Act shield that protected it as the state’s only majority-minority seat.
The right to vote is the foundation of community power, and protecting access to the ballot is how residents keep their voice in the decisions that shape their health and community well-being.
Nonprofit Ecosystem
Let’s finish with a policy update that could impact the entire non-profit ecosystem and reshape how federal dollars reach communities.
On May 29th, the Office of Management and Budget proposed a sweeping rule to carry out an executive order issued last summer that overhauls federal grantmaking. The rule would require a senior political appointee at each grantmaking agency to review and approve funding opportunities and grant awards to ensure they align with the administration’s priorities and the “national interest,” making longstanding scientific peer review advisory rather than binding. It would also give officials broad new authority to terminate grants that are already underway.
Scientists and nonprofit leaders warn that this places decisions about research and community funding in the hands of political appointees who may lack relevant expertise, and that the underlying order has already been used to cut grants touching on transgender health, reproductive health, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
For the many health and human-services organizations across our region that rely on federal grants to serve their communities, this raises real questions about which work will remain fundable by the federal government, particularly work that centers communities of color, immigrant health, and equity.
That wraps up this month’s local and federal policy update. Health Forward stands with you in this work. Together, we can build inclusive, powerful, and healthy communities.
That wraps up this summer’s local and federal policy update. Health Forward stands with you in this work. Together, we can build inclusive, powerful, and healthy communities.
