Wichita Forward moves to quiet sales tax opposition, won’t release survey data

Wichita Forward did not allow public questions or comments about the group’s 1% sales tax proposal at a forum Monday night after the plan was met with strong opposition last week both at a forum and at a city council meeting.

And the group would not release survey data supporting its claim that the sales tax proposal is based on what Wichitans want, despite requests from at least two city council members.

Residents who spoke at the Dec. 9 council meeting voiced concern about a lack of transparency in the group’s seven-year, $850 million proposal to fund a new performing arts center, a convention center expansion, public safety projects and Century II renovations while providing money to fight homelessness and lower property taxes.

Ben Davis, campaign manager for Wichita Forward, announced the no-questions policy at the start of Monday’s forum, against a backdrop of an apparently AI-generated Wichita skyline with the tagline “Wichita Forward — A proposal for Wichita’s Future: A Sales Tax Initiative for the Common Good.”

“When we are done, feel free to come up, you can talk to us, we can engage with you one on one, in small groups, however you want to do it,” Davis, campaign manager for Wichita Forward, announced to a crowd of nearly 100 at the Advanced Learning Library. “But tonight, we’re not doing open mic night. We’re not doing the club tonight. No open mic night.”

Several members of the public left the meeting following Davis’ announcement. Davis defended the decision after the meeting and criticized those who spoke against the plan last week.

“All last week was were a handful of cherry-picked people who stood in a crowd who wanted to make statements and grandstand to get free press,” Davis said. “That distracts from what the meeting is supposed to be, which is a community meeting to learn about the proposal that Wichita Forward is making and to ask questions about it.

“They could come up with their own alternative proposal if they wanted to,” he continued. “This is not a time to let grandstanding by two or three people to get free press. We wanted people to actually be educated and informed and learn about the plan and then come and have intelligent conversations and ask questions about it afterward.”

Wichita Forward — a coalition of downtown boosters founded by Jon Rolph, CEO of Thrive Restaurant Group, Ben Hutton, CEO of Hutton Corp., and Aaron Bastian, CEO of Fidelity Bank, to support the sales tax — unveiled its plan late last month. Within two weeks, the city council voted unanimously to put the proposal on a March 3 ballot. The council is expected to give final approval of spending $150,000 for the special election on Tuesday.

Any delays would likely move the ballot question to August or November.

At last week's council meeting, council member Mike Hoheisel and Vice Mayor J.V. Johnston requested the data from Wichita Forward’s recent 500-person survey before this week’s meeting.

Matt Burchett, a spokesperson for the coalition and executive for Thrive Restaurant Group, seemed to confirm that the group would release more detailed survey data.

“I think we do have plans to release it in greater detail, yes,” Burchett said to Hoheisel.

Johnston encouraged Burchett to post the full questions and answers on the Wichita Forward website by Tuesday. Burchett did not answer him directly, instead saying, “I’m not a math PhD.”

Wichita Forward uploaded a one-page summary that does not include the questions or results from the survey, which was apparently conducted online and over the phone.

Davis said there must be a misunderstanding.

“We were never — I was never going to release the actual polling data,” Davis said. “Because that’s just our stuff that we’re — I mean, we own the data, and we provided what we thought was relevant for the general public. We asked all kinds of questions in there about right track, wrong track, I mean, all kinds of different things.”

“I went back and listened to Matt’s answer,” Davis said. “I didn’t hear him say that we were going to be providing all the poll data.”

Davis said releasing the full results would likely be a distraction for the Wichita Forward campaign.

“The voters will decide what they want to do with it,” Davis said. “The polling is irrelevant to the voter. If I’m trying to release polling, then I’m trying to influence voters in a way that could taint the vote in some way. I want them to just hear the messaging, hear the arguments, weigh it out on the merits, and make a decision that way. I don’t need the polling clouding an issue in a positive or negative direction. The polling is for me to use, not for the general public. Most of the general public thinks that polls are manufactured B.S. anyway. So it’s like then I’m having to explain polling data or how polling works. That distracts from the actual campaign itself.”

Actual data?

At least one council member was less than thrilled with Wichita Forward’s actions Monday night.

“People showed up expecting to be able to have a dialog with Wichita Forward, and that’s not what they experienced,” Hoheisel said. “And that’s a shame because if we’re going to move forward together, we need to do it together.”

“I want the actual data,” Hoheisel said in an interview after the forum. “And I’m pretty sure a solid majority of the council wants the actual data, too. I was looking for more than a one-pager.”

Hoheisel also said he’s disappointed in the lack of public input on the plan overall and especially on Monday night.

The summary of survey results says the top two issues on the minds of Wichita voters are homelessness and public safety, which are set to receive $150 million and $225 million, respectively, from the sales tax proposal. It does not say where a new performing arts center ($75 million) and an expanded convention center ($225 million) ranked. It says 59% of respondents supported updating Century II ($25 million).

There’s also no data provided on what property tax questions were asked and how people answered.

“Here’s what I’ll tell you,” Davis said. “If there was not support for it, this wouldn’t be proposed or be in there.”

“The people at the end of the day will have the ultimate say in this,” Davis said.

Council member Dalton Glasscock, who also attended the forum Monday night, said he would talk to the group in an attempt to have the data released.

“The council is the one that makes the final determination, and I encourage all residents to come and talk to us tomorrow,” Glasscock said. “We have open forum at 9 o’clock for the governing body. We’re the ones that were hired to take questions, and that’s our responsibility, our duty.”

Glasscock said he has not seen the survey results. But he suggested the results are unnecessary for him.

“For me, my research is talking to voters. And when I talk to voters and talk to constituents, the number one issues I hear are property tax reduction, it’s investment in public safety, and it’s homelessness. Like, I don’t need a poll to tell me what I hear from residents every single day.”

Glasscock was unable to provide any examples of voters calling for an expanded convention center and a new performing arts center aside from Visit Wichita and some users of Century II such as Music Theatre Wichita.