Election results: two out of three issues approved

Midtown residents had three decisions to make at the ballot box on April 2. They approved two issues and voted the third one down.

• Question 1 –Health Levy Extension: passed by a 76 percent. Voters agreed to renew the city health levy for nine years.  That means an extension of the tax residents currently pay, 22 cents for $100 of assessed property value, providing $15 million a year (about $4 a month for the owner of a $100,000 home). Midtown’s KC Care Clinic (formerly known as the Free Health Clinic) receives a portion of its operating budget from the tax. The money also goes to offset some of the indigent care Truman Medical Center provides, to help pay for the ambulance system, and for the city’s health clinics.
• Question 2 –Tourism Tax to Include Nonprofits: passed by a 78 percent. The yes vote will allow the city  to remove the exemption for nonprofit organizations under the city’s tourism tax. The city is the only one in the state that exempted those groups from its tax on non-resident hotel and motel guests. The money is a major source of funding for city convention and entertainment facilities and its convention and visitors association. It is the only source of funding for the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, which is used to help pay for things like the Irish Festival, 18^th and Vine events and other neighborhood festivals
• Question 3 – Prohibiting the manufacture of nuclear weapons parts: failed by a 77 percent. Voters overwhelmingly rejected a grassroots measure aimed at preventing Kansas City from subsidizing contractors or suppliers doing business with the new weapons plant in the Bannister area.  Passage would have banned city subsidies for suppliers of products to that National Nuclear Security Administration facility, which manufactures and procures nonnuclear components for nuclear weapons. Supporters said they wanted to send a clear message that Kansas City does not want to be involved in making nuclear weapons. Opponents said the measure could be a job killer; the plant is expected to employ 2500 people when it becomes fully operational in 2013.