Bus riders and paratransit users in Jackson County are seeing their access to school, jobs, healthcare and housing degrade. Within the last few months, Raytown, Blue Springs and Grandview have decided to cut bus service due to budget shortfalls, and more devastating service cuts are looming in Independence and Kansas City, MO.

With our bus system facing a $35 million budget deficit in 2025, WE NEED YOU to demand that our leaders in the Jackson County legislature provide dedicated and sustainable funding for our buses!

Public transit is one of the greatest investments that a region can make. It enables workers, young people, and folks of differing abilities to get to work, to school, to the doctor, and to see their friends and family without the budget-draining burden of owning a car. A convenient and functional public transit system also enables less car traffic, less tailpipe, brake pad and tire emissions, and less wear-and-tear on our roads.

However, the Kansas City region would apparently disagree: currently, the City of Kansas City, MO is the only place that has a dedicated source of funding for public transit in the entire region. Missouri counties within the KC metro invest exactly $0 into public transit, including in Jackson County, home to the largest concentration of impacted bus riders and transit-dependent folks in the Kansas City region.

This lack of regional investment in transit is not normal, especially compared to our peers: St. Louis County invests almost $200 million a year into public transit through dedicated sales tax revenues. Austin, TX, Columbus, OH, and Denver, CO all have dedicated regional funding for transit, which allows them to invest far more per person into public transit than our region can. We cannot allow this to continue. Bus riders need our elected leaders in Jackson County to fund our buses now!