12 July 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The City of Wichita is planning how to spend its 2024 operating budget, which is about $300 million dollars, with the entire budget at $714 million.
The City of Wichita City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday to move forward with the recommended operating budget.
The City says a big focus, around $120 million, of the proposal is public safety. That amount would go toward police, including adding more body cameras and creating new positions from the Jensen and Hughes recommendations.
Another focus, about $66 million, would go to the Wichita Fire Department to provide EMT certification for new fire recruits.
In this recommended operating budget, nearly every department saw an increase.
“Every area of government, we just continue to grow, grow, grow. We have to find out whether our residents want to pay for that or not,” said Wichita City Councilman, Jeff Blubaugh.
Wichita city leaders said inflation is impacting the budget and they believe they have lost about $15 million in spending power.
The City is looking at how to cover those costs. One solution could impact city residents’ property taxes.
“The only growth or changes that we ever see in our property tax revenue come from changes in valuation,” said Wichita City Manager, Robert Layton.
Many Sedgwick County residents have received new property evaluations within the last year.
Layton says Wichita is considering exceeding the Revenue Neutral Rate, meaning the city would take advantage of the increase from the property evaluations by Sedgwick County. This could bring around $12 million in property taxes to Wichita.
“They would probably see an increase in their property tax bill that would reflect the increase in their valuation,” said Layton.
If the home you own saw an increase of 5% from the county evaluation, your city property tax would go up 5%.
If your evaluation did not rise, you would not see a change from the City.
“The discussion with the council was how much property tax should we be utilizing to balance this budget,” said Layton.
Council members are on both sides of whether or not to keep increasing the budget.
“We are already pushed to the limits out there. I hear it in my community meetings where people, they don’t have any discretionary money. Everything is up,” said City Councilman Jeff Blubaugh
“What else is there to cut? If we start cutting people, we are cutting service, and people really need to have that conversation. What type of city of Wichita government does the community want?” said Wichita City Councilman Brandon Johnson.
The City will be to make a decision on how to handle increased costs due to inflation and meet increased public safety needs.
Multiple budget workshops are being held by the Wichita City Council;
July 27 – Public hearing held at 7:00 pm.
August 11 – Deadline for Legal Publication of Notice published in the Wichita Eagle and online at wichita.gov
August 15 – Public hearing during the City Council meeting
August 22 – Final public hearing held and 2024 Revenue Neutral Rate presented at the City Council Meeting
They are encouraging anyone to come and share what they think of the proposed budget.