In the News
By Leah Wankum
Downtown Overland Park could have looked vacant this summer.
When the global COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread shutdowns in March 2020, a handful of small businesses were at risk of staying permanently closed. But a loyal, supportive customer base paired with federal COVID-19 relief programs like the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan have kept those businesses afloat, some business owners say.
By Heidi Schmidt and Tia Johnson
Families in Kansas and Missouri have started to receive child tax credit payments from the Biden administration's American Rescue Plan.
Critics labeled it another unnecessary government handout adding to the deficit, but on Monday, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids and supporters hailed it as a big boost for families struggling with the pandemic.
5 things to know before child tax credit checks arrive this month
"While we were saving for all of the things we were expecting, we weren't expecting all that," Kansas mom Crystal Henry said.
Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS) held a press conference on Monday to explain the expanded Child Tax Credit. New monthly payments begin reaching families' bank accounts on Thursday.
Davids, a tribal citizen of the Ho-Chunk Nation, voted in support of the American Rescue Plan, which expanded and improved the Child Tax Credit to provide more relief to more families through monthly advance payments of up to $300 per child. In a report released last month.
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The expanded Child Tax Credit will help Kansas families recover from the pandemic, according to U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-3rd Dist.
New monthly payments will begin reaching families' bank accounts Thursday, and Rep. Davids and other officials shared resources for families to check their eligibility, track payments and update their information with the IRS.
Rep. Davids voted to support the American Rescue Plan, which expanded and improved Child Tax Credits. The plan provides monthly advance payments of up to $300 per child.
Sharice Davids strolled through downtown Overland Park Friday afternoon — with an ice cream cone in hand — stopping to meet with local small business owners to hear their pandemic survival stories and how federal relief programs played a role.
"Today has been really fun; to see just how innovative … the problem-solving modes that entrepreneurs around here have been putting into work," said U.S. Rep. Davids, D-Kansas, after the tour Friday. "I think people don't realize just what a vibrant community we have here in the Kansas Third [district] or in the Kansas City metro."
Without federal aid from the American Rescue Plan, some Overland Park business owners said they wouldn't have made it through the past year.
"We shut down completely for about a month at the beginning of the pandemic, and that federal aid helped us deal with outstanding bills and be able to bring staff back," Elaine Van Buskirk and Jan Knobel, co-owners of The Upper Crust, said in a news release. "Now, we're back to baking and serving the community we love full-time."
Federal money from a $715 billion infrastructure bill approved by the U.S. House Thursday could make the project to expand U.S. Highway 69 in Overland Park richer, if the measure survives an eventual Senate conference.
The prospective $15 million injection —plus a state match — is targeted specifically at the 167th Street interchange.
The House vote came a week after the Overland Park City County voted to approve adding express toll lanes on U.S. 69 as the preferred way to deal with growing congestion on what has become Kansas's busiest highway.
A new interchange in Johnson County and electric buses for Kansas City are in the new infrastructure bill being considered by the House Wednesday.
Area lawmakers are in important positions to decide the fate of the bill. This is money for roads, bridges and promoting climate change. U.S. Rep. Sam Graves is the top Republican on the House Infrastructure Committee and U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat, is the vice chair.
"I think what we're seeing, in my view, is some real momentum getting built up," Davids said.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Wednesday launched public-service announcements about COVID-19, reflecting officials' fears that people who travel over the Fourth of July holiday will return with the fast-spreading delta variant.
Rep. Davids joined Alex Witt on Sunday, June 27 to speak on the new bipartisan infrastructure framework, the American Families Plan, the Child Tax Credit, the January 6th House Select Committee, and Pride at the White House.