Violence prevention tops priority list for Kansas City’s marijuana tax money

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A group working to prevent violence on Kansas City’s eastside may soon get a big boost from the marijuana industry.

Members of the city council’s public safety committee heard a proposal Wednesday that would give Aim4Peace more than $450,000 in funding. The funding is one-third of the estimated tax revenue from the city’s marijuana tax.

Voters approved the 3% tax April. City leaders said money from the tax would be used on violence prevention, trash cleanup, and other programs. The city estimates it will receive $3 million from the tax annually when the tax takes effect October 1, 2023.

One-third of the tax money is dedicated to violence prevention, according to city council members. The funding would pay for Aim4Peace to add two new teams of five people. One of those teams would focus on working with the Hispanic community, according to Rashid Junaid with Aim4Peace.

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“That would entail the salaries of those staff as well as the support behind the staff in terms of administrators, phones, computers and all those types of things. In the process of them doing the work they have to document everything in our respective systems, Junaid said.

“In my opinion, if Aim4Peace prevents one homicide, then we are seeing a return on that investment and the program is operating as a success,” Councilman Crispin Rea, 4th District-At-Large, said.

The ordinance now moves to the full council with the committee recommending it is passed.

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