New KCRTA poll shows support for transit sales tax

The Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance (KCRTA) has developed and poll-tested a county-based transit funding strategy that would see each regional county established its own stream of dedicated transit funding. If voters approve of each’s county’s proposed timeline, that county would establish the governance model and services for the investment in its transit system.

Currently, individual governments fund transit operations from their general revenue funds, which leaves the network of systems without full funding and the regional economy lagging behind others in the broader region. The exception is Kansas City, Mo., which hosts two citywide transit sales taxes and funding for its streetcar via a special district.

KCRTA engaged partners throughout the region to develop and commission a poll of Kansas City-area voters. These voters were polled from four counties: Clay, Jackson, Johnson, and Wyandotte Counties. Conducted in July of 2025 by EMC Research, the poll reached 400 voters in each county and has a calculated regional margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points, though county-level margins of error varied.

A majority of voters shared the belief that public transit is a public good that deserves additional public funding, regardless of if they personally used public transit services.

Poll results are listed below.

The poll asked voters: “Next year, there may be a measure on the ballot in [COUNTY] that would increase the local sales tax by 1/2¢ for 10 years to fund public transit bus services in [COUNTY]. If the election were held today, would you vote yes to approve or no to reject this measure?”

Each of the polled counties reached 50% or above, even prior to hearing potential reasons as to why the measure may be beneficial. Once the plans were laid out, yes votes increased as much as 7%.

• Clay County received 53% yeses uninformed and 54% once informed.
• Jackson County received 57% yeses uninformed and 61% once informed.
• Johnson County received 52% yeses uninformed and 56% once informed.
• Wyandotte County received 50% yeses uninformed and 57% once informed.

With the results, KCRTA plans to build upon this information with further steps to garner support and build upon the information. That will include:

• Outreach to elected officials and other stakeholders to share results and build support for public transit.
• Additional polling as needed to gauge voter support for transit and related infrastructure improvements.
• Building coalitions necessary to support ballot measures that fund our public transit system.