Wichita proposes an increase in police funding, privatizing Century II

Wichita plans to increase police funding by millions of dollars next year and privatize Century II, bucking suggestions from protesters and community activists on both issues, as the city grapples with an expected $50 million budget hole over the next three years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The city’s proposed 2021 budget cuts some services, pushes back deadlines on capital improvements and doesn’t raise the property tax rate.

Arts and cultural funding will take a 5% cut. Fewer trees will get planted. Stray cats will be left to roam. And the Wichita Animal Shelter will no longer accept animals from people trying to put their pets up for adoption.

The $50 million is what needs to be cut between 2020 and 2022 to balance the city’s nearly $630 million-a-year budget.

The city’s general fund revenue is actually projected to increase by $6.3 million, or 2.5%, in 2021, due primarily to property tax collections that increase because of valuations homes and commercial real estate, according to the budget proposal. But the city expected more growth and now has to make adjustments to balance the budget.

“We made significant changes and program modifications in order to get us balanced into 2020 and 2021,” City Manager Robert Layton said.

Layton, who proposed the new budget to the City Council Tuesday, said the cuts reflect a “robust process” for gathering community and council input on budget priorities. In preparation for the budget presentation, the council held multiple, lengthy workshop sessions. The city also collected surveys and gather feedback on social media.

The top priorities, Layton said, were fire and medical response, police person-crime investigations units and street maintenance. Those priorities are reflected in the city’s $247.7 million general fund budget.

Money in the general fund comes from property tax, sales tax, franchise fees, motor fuel tax, motor vehicle tax and other sources.

“If you look at what most of our residents will identify as our top priorities — police, fire and public works — that’s almost 75 percent of our total expenses in the general fund,” he said.

Economic downturn expected

Before the pandemic and the Boeing 737 Max crisis, Wichita’s unemployment rate stood at 3.4%, its lowest rate since 1997. It’s expected to exceed 20% this year, slowly decreasing to single digits by the end of the year and the start of 2021.

“Weakness in the market for air travel may cause Wichita’s recovery to be slower than the national average due to low demand for aerospace manufacturing,” the city’s budget document says.

In 2020, Wichita is projected to lose 44,400 jobs, or 14.6% of its workforce. An economic recovery is expected to be slower than the national average in Wichita because of its concentration of aviation workers and the low demand for aerospace manufacturing, according to the city’s projections.

The largest job losses are in the production section (23.2%), trade, transportation and utilities (14.6%), and leisure and hospitality services (30.6%), according to the city’s projections.

Wichita’s workers will also see a sharp decline in total personal income, which is forecast to drop 15.8% in 2020. Total personal income in the Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area was $33 billion in 2018, the latest numbers available.

Layton said those troubling numbers are one reason the city is not raising taxes.

Privatizing Century II

Cutting Century II operations from the city budget would cut 29 city jobs, saving the city millions of dollars each year but potentially limiting the more civic-minded uses of the facility under a private operator.

Layton said privatizing the convention and performing arts center would help the city “build a sustainable model going forward using best practices from the industry.”

He said a draft request for proposals will be brought to City Council for approval before it opens for bidding.

Mayor Brandon Whipple said he thinks the decision will “likely cause some anxiety and questions from the public” and has asked Layton to provide some forum for residents to get information and voice concerns about the proposal.

Celeste Racette, a community activist who has spearheaded a campaign to save the building and get it on the historic registry amid talks of tearing it down, has said privatizing the building is a bad idea.

“That’s just one more step the city is taking to wash its hands of that building — a building Wichita taxpayers own and paid for,” she told The Eagle recently.

Police funding increase

In response to the killing of George Floyd, a Black Minnesota man who died after a police officer pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck for several minutes, protests have broken out across the globe calling for police reforms and accountability.

One of the loudest cries and national conversations has been defunding police, which calls for demilitarizing police departments and redirecting police funding to other social services such as mental health and substance abuse programs.

The calls for defunding police come at the same time violent crime is on the rise in Wichita. The city’s violent crime rate in 2019 was more than double the national average. Shootings have climbed steadily since 2014. Murders, rapes, domestic violence and aggravated assaults have also been on the rise.

The city of Wichita proposes increasing the police operations budget from $92.5 million this year to more than $98 million in 2021, as it adds officers and increases salaries. It is projected to increase again in 2022 to more than $100 million.

Layton said the Wichita Police Department will use the additional money to focus on community policing and building relationships.

This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 5:01 PM.