Wichita sales tax proposal faces opposition at first public meeting

Wichita Forward’s one-cent sales tax proposal faced strong opposition during its first informational meeting Monday night.

The meeting came a day before the coalition is scheduled to present the proposal to the Wichita City Council on Tuesday morning.

More than a hundred people attended the meeting, with most of the speakers voicing opposition to the proposal and citing a lack of transparency.

Others criticized the plan for lacking detail.

Wichita Forward previously said the $850 million proposal would fund public safety projects, property tax relief, homeless initiatives and revitalizing Century II and the surrounding area, among other things.

“It’s a concept of a plan,” local activist Bill Anderson interjected at one point in the meeting.

Matt Burchett, who presented the proposal for the coalition at the meeting, said the lack of detail is on purpose.

“The hope was that we would say buckets of resources towards primary objectives that we believe mirrored the hopes and aspirations of Wichitans,” Burchett said. “So that there wasn’t a lot of leeway within those dollar amounts to fund projects outside the scope of the identified ballot measure.”

Others criticized the group for fast-tracking the proposal onto a March special election ballot.

“Ben [Davis] was a guest on my show last year regarding the school bond issue, and he explicitly said that placing the bond issue on the … February ballot … was an explicit try from the school district to get low voter turnout,” Kansas Week host Jared Cerullo said. “How can you guys say that you’re not trying to do the same thing?”

Davis is helping to organize the Wichita Forward campaign. He also led the opposition vote against the failed school bond issue earlier this year.

Burchett defended the coalition’s stance to put the sales tax on the March ballot.

“The hope is that it is outside of the cycle that allows for it to be nonpartisan, a Wichita issue,” he said. Regularly scheduled elections in August and November next year will include candidates for federal, state and county offices.

The meeting grew contentious with outbursts from the group during the question and answer portion.

Davis stepped in at one point, challenging the crowd to organize their own petition to “make the plan better.”

“Under the U.S. Constitution, you have a right to organize and you have a right to petition your government,” Davis said. “Wichita Forward has a right to organize as a group of people and to petition the government, just like anybody else in this room.”

By the end of the meeting, a separate petition to oppose the sales tax began circulating.

“We got a few signatures,” petition organizer John Axtell said.

City council members will vote Tuesday morning on whether to put the sales tax initiative on a March special election ballot. A majority of council members indicated earlier that they favored putting the sales tax question on the ballot.

Another informational meeting for the sales tax proposal will be held at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Advanced Learning Library.

This story was originally published December 8, 2025 at 8:35 PM.