Will Wichita workers get paid maternity leave amid $10 million coronavirus shortfall?
Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple on Tuesday proposed instituting paid maternity leave for employees as part of the city’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The mayor floated that idea during a budget workshop where the City Council was briefed on a pending city shortfall estimated in the $8- to $10 million range.
Whipple said the city should consider establishing paid leave for new mothers now, because City Hall has asked its employees to donate their unused sick leave and vacation time to supplement the pay of 290 co-workers who are furloughed from their jobs during a statewide stay-home order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 disease.
Whipple said that could leave some women without adequate paid time off if they get pregnant.
“When I first got here, I found out that we don’t have paid maternity leave unless you can utilize your sick and vacation days,” he said. “However, given the situation, we have asked our employees to come forward and offer those sick and vacation days to each other.”
City employees should never have to “choose between having a paycheck and having a child,” he said.
But he got some pushback from some other council members including Becky Tuttle, who would not commit to supporting paid maternity leave without more thought.
“I don’t think we can just throw it in until we know a little bit more about what the cost would be,” she said.
Replied Whipple: “No, I think we should definitely throw it in, no matter what.”
Whipple also quoted from Tuttle’s own campaign mantra — her election promise to make Wichita the best city in the country “to live, work, play and pray.”
“We want Wichita to not only be the best place to live, work, play and pray, but we also want it to be the best city to work for in the Midwest,” Whipple said.
He said it would be practical because it would encourage women to keep working at City Hall instead of bolting for jobs with better maternity benefits.
“It costs more money to replace a trained employee than it does to just give them what they need to be successful,” Whipple said. “This is standard, Westernized, modern economy stuff.”
Tuttle insisted she was not supporting or opposing the idea.
“I’m just asking for information,” she said. “As a public health professional, this is an area that I actually have opinions on. But I just want to know what the financial repercussions are . . . since this is the first time that I’ve heard of it” as a city policy proposal.
In a moment of agreement between Whipple and council member Bryan Frye — who traded shots earlier this week over Whipple’s proposal to cut the council’s travel and lunch expenditures — the council member commended the mayor for his idea to offer paid maternity leave.
“I think you’re absolutely right in terms of retention of our best and brightest and recruiting new people,” Frye said. “If we have the best suite of benefits that we can offer, I think it’s something we should definitely look at. So, good idea.”
Revenue hits
Maternity leave would, however, be a potential added expense at a time when the coronavirus response is expected to create a budget gap as much as $10 million this year.
City Treasurer Mark Manning led the council through a detailed list of where he thinks revenue hits will be coming:
▪ Rental and fees: $2.8 million. These losses are related to ongoing closures of city-owned attractions such as the Century II Convention and Performing Arts Center, Old Cowtown Museum, Botanica and CityArts. Those generate money on tickets, admission charges and fees for classes. While that will be offset some by reduced staffing, it’s nowhere near enough to balance the losses.
▪ Sales tax: $2 million. With many stores closed and people staying home, retail sales will be down leading to a dip in sales taxes.
▪ Interest income: $2 million. City funds are invested until they are spent. With interest rates essentially zero,”we will have a significant hit,” Manning said.
▪ Court fines: $1.2 million. Courts are suspended temporarily and police have cut back on enforcement of traffic and minor infractions.
▪ Motor vehicle taxes: $700,000. Car sales are likely to be less than originally expected.
▪ Franchise fees: $600,000. This is money that comes from utilities that provide monopoly services to customers. Most of that comes from the electric utility, Evergy, Manning said.
▪ Property tax: $200,000. Valuations are already set for the rest of the year, although there could be a slight decrease due to property owners’ appeals. A bigger dip could come next year when properties are reappraised.
Manning also reported that with the golf courses closed, the fund that runs them is in “critical condition.”
Ordinarily, the courses would generate $75,000 to $100,000 a week at this time of year, Manning said. But with no play, there’s no revenue coming in.
The golf fund is an “enterprise fund,” separate from the regular budget to ensure that the courses are self-supporting.
But the golf fund is currently about $200,000 in the red and on track to finish the year with a negative balance.
To balance that fund as state law requires, the city may have to make significant cuts or subsidize the courses from its general fund, Manning said.
Whipple questioned whether the city might reopen its courses with social distancing measures in place to prevent spreading the coronavirus, for example a rule of one golfer per cart.
He said private courses and some other cities’ courses are open on those conditions.
However, City Manager Robert Layton said it’s a health issue, not a financial one.
He said city staff were originally on the fence, but came down on the side of closure when a golfer at one of Wichita’s private courses tested positive for coronavirus.
That led to a round of health tracking, drawing in all the staff and golfers who’d come in contact with the infected player, Layton said. Also, golfers could spread the virus by touching surfaces at the courses, he said.
“We would never have the staffing available to be able to clean on a regular basis several times during the day all of the things people could come in contact with,” Layton said.
Cuts expected
City Hall will spend the next few weeks sorting through actions it can take to make up for the millions of dollars in losses.
Tuesday’s budget workshop was the first of three planned for April and early May that could set the direction that the city ultimately takes and what cuts it makes.
Earlier, the council approved a plan allowing city staff to borrow and spend as much as $1 million to fight the coronavirus pandemic, with the expectation that most of the money will be paid back with federal aid.
“To state the obvious, the COVID-19 virus is expected to have a significant financial impact on the city of Wichita and impact city operations,” Manning said.
Layton said it’s important to create a special fund solely for spending on the COVID-19 crisis.
“Otherwise we’d have these expenditures scattered throughout the organization and it would be a lot harder to account for those when it came time for filing” for federal reimbursement, Layton said. “The other thing I would note is if we don’t get reimbursed, the council will ultimately decide how we cover these expenses.”
In past disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has reimbursed city expenses at a rate of 85% federal dollars with a 15% match by the city, according to a staff report.
“At this point, the financial impact (of the coronavirus response) is not known, nor is the extent of any federal aid or other public assistance,” the report said. “However, it is essential to have a mechanism in place to fund initial costs and to segregate the costs related to the COVID-19 response to meet requirements for reporting (to FEMA) and supporting documentation.”
“To the extent expenditures are not reimbursed through federal aid or other forms of public assistance, the remaining costs may be charged back to the appropriate operating budgets or may be financed through the issuance of debt,” the report said.
Tuesday’s resolution authorizes the city to borrow using general obligation bonds to cover capital expenses.
The vote on the resolution was unanimous.
“I’m very excited we are dedicating some of our monetary resources to help our citizens through this terrible pandemic,” Whipple said.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 10:25 AM.
