County rejects sales tax option to pay for flood-prevention projects

Sedgwick County voted against asking the state for the ability to start a sales tax to pay for projects to reduce flooding.

Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve their 2017 state legislative platform during the last commission meeting of the year.

But they did not want to include a staff recommendation to amend state law to allow counties to levy a tenth of a cent sales tax to pay for stormwater management.

“Sedgwick County has suffered two major flooding incidents in 2016 and has over $200 million in identified stormwater management and flood control projects that are currently unfunded,” according to the proposal, which was listed as a key legislative initiative.

Sedgwick County has struggled to come up with a reliable way to pay for drainage projects that mitigate the effects of water spilling onto roadways and into basements during heavy rains.

A 1988 state law briefly allowed Kansas counties to adopt a tenth of a cent sales tax to pay for stormwater management and flood control. That window closed in 1990 with Johnson County as the only one to implement the tax, which still exists today.

“It’s an additional tool in the toolbox. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we would utilize that tool,” Assistant County Counselor Jon Von Achen said of the sales tax. “Currently, we are looking at all possible funding sources to be able to fund these projects and to start to pick them off.”

Von Achen said a tenth of a cent sales tax would generate about $10 million a year for the county.

Chairman Jim Howell’s district includes Mulvane, which was rocked by torrential rains and flooding in August and September. He said he was open to including the proposal in the platform if it required voter approval of the sales tax.

“If we’re going to do something, that does require revenue,” Howell said. “Johnson County does have a model. … They’re able to do some things that we can’t do here.”

Commissioners Karl Peterjohn and Dave Unruh raised concerns about the proposal not mentioning voter approval of the sales tax.

“We are not specific in what our ask is,” Unruh said.

Commissioner Richard Ranzau called the proposal a “show-stopper” and motioned for it to be taken off the legislative platform.

“We’re way out ahead of ourselves on this particular item,” Ranzau said. “I think we have plenty of tools in the toolbox as they exist.”

“I’m not in the position that I would want to ask for more taxing authority,” he added.

Howell said they could revisit funding for flood control in January.

Commissioner Tim Norton’s district, which includes Haysville, Clearwater and parts of south Wichita, is also affected by flooding. He voted no on the final platform.

“There’s got to be some mechanism to fund stormwater and groundwater projects,” Norton said after the meeting. “We can’t continually say the number is huge and it’s daunting so let’s do nothing.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 4:53 PM with the headline "County rejects sales tax option to pay for flood-prevention projects."