Kansas City Auditor’s Office Launches Audit To Review Oversight Of Community Improvement Districts

Press release from the City of Kansas City:

May 21, 2020

The City Auditor’s Office is conducting an audit to review oversight of Community Improvement Districts (CIDs). State law authorizes creation of a CID and this is done when a majority of property owners submit a petition to the city and the City Council holds a public hearing and adopts an ordinance establishing the CID.

There are currently 74 CIDs in Kansas City. Depending on the structure, CIDs may impose special assessments and sales and use taxes of up to 1 percent within district boundaries. CIDs may use collected revenues and borrowed funds for a variety of purposes including, but not limited to, security, maintenance, refuse collection and disposal, landscaping, property acquisitions, and promoting tourism and business activities.

The use of CIDs is growing, and our past audits noted CIDs did not consistently submit required reports to the city, and also identified accountability, and transparency issues. The objective of this audit is to determine whether the city is exercising oversight of Community Improvement Districts.

View the audit Scope Statement online on our Recent Reports page.

Did you know you can submit audit ideas to the city auditor?

This press release was produced by the City of Kansas City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.