Wichita city budget: social workers in WPD, new roof for Century II, paving dirt roads

Wichita plans to pave dirt roads, replace Century II’s roof and embed social workers in the police department starting next year.

Those are three of the top-line items in next year’s nearly $877 million budget, which was presented by City Manager Robert Layton to the City Council on Tuesday.

The City Council will have three budget hearings where members of the public are invited to provide feedback on the proposal: Aug. 4, Aug. 16 and Aug. 23.

The newly released budget includes $31 million over 10 years to pave dirt streets with asphalt. Road paving in neighborhoods has traditionally been funded through special assessments, but the city’s budget would use the general fund and other city revenues to pave approximately 40 lane miles, starting with areas around schools and then moving to what it called “economically challenged areas.”

Another nagging issue Layton’s budget seeks to address is deferred maintenance at Century II, the city’s performing arts and convention center. The proposed budget directs $18 million to maintenance of the facility over the next 10 years, including $6.5 million next year for a full roof replacement and heating and air conditioning upgrades.

Century II won’t be the only city-owned building that receives additional attention.

Over eight years, the city plans to spend $45 million to improve or replace nine fire stations. The capital improvement plan also includes an additional $40 million in improvements for the police department over the next decade, including funding to replace four police stations in Wichita.

Public safety is the city’s top budget priority, Layton said.

In keeping with that philosophy, the Wichita Police Department budget continues to grow. It has increased by more than $19 million since 2019 and has more than doubled in the past twenty years.

Next year, the police operating budget is set to jump by more than $7 million, from $102 million this year to nearly $110 million. Police salaries and benefits will increase by almost $4 million, from $88.4 million to $92.3 million.

Included in that funding is $700,000 for responding to mental health crises, which is expected to be spent on embedding social workers in the department.

“We’re recommending to you that we implant social workers inside the police department,” Layton told council members. “We’ll have the social work expertise available to all of our police officers should they encounter someone in mental health crisis.”

Wichita Fire Department salaries and benefits will also increase. The budget calls for an additional $1.3 million for fire department salaries and benefits next year. Fire’s budget is $54.4 million next year.

Layton said the city also plans to pump $42 million “into a number of what we call multimodal projects, which include bike paths, sidewalks and signal improvements” over the next decade.

Some smaller cost items in the budget reflect changes in how the city operates, including funding to plant 1,000 additional trees each year.

Another such initiative is the elimination of late fees at Wichita Public Libraries.

“In order to remove barriers to use our libraries and to improve equity considerations for library use, we’re recommending that the overdue fee structure be eliminated from the library,” Layton said. “Also we are recommending an increase in materials purchases for the library, including more emphasis on online content, which has become heavily used since the start of the pandemic.”

Here are links to the city’s budget proposals:

Wichita’s 2023-2024 proposed budget

Wichita’s 2023-2032 proposed capital improvement program budget

This story was originally published July 12, 2022 at 3:58 PM.