Mayor Lily Wu calls special meeting to potentially delay March sales tax vote

Wichita Mayor Lily Wu has called a special meeting to discuss delaying the March 3 special sales tax election.

That meeting will occur at noon Wednesday at City Hall for council members to discuss delaying the vote until the Aug. 4 primary election.

The mayor has the power to call a special meeting on her own. She did so after she asked council members to approve having a special meeting and they voted 4-3 against the idea.

The moves come after the county election office said about 26,000 Wichita voters would be temporarily moved to other polling locations at an additional cost of $20,000.

The total cost to the city for the March special election is now $170,000.

“On Friday, we learned of additional costs and changes in polling locations,” Wu said. “So I believe we need to pause with a new council. There are now new members who are part of this group.”

The only council members who sided with the mayor to hold a special meeting on Wednesday were Mike Hoheisel and newly sworn-in Joseph Shepard.

Overseas mail ballots get sent out Friday by the election office, according to the county, which gives the city until the end of business Thursday to call off the election or delay it.

“[The public is] concerned that this is too rushed and giving us time to actually debate and kind of come up with the issue is like building an airplane as we’re flying it,” Hoheisel said.

Other council members opposed reconsidering the date, saying it was too last minute.

“To say I’m frustrated and baffled is like the understatement, I think, of the century,” council member Becky Tuttle said. “That’s not transparent, that’s not consistent. It’s not giving anyone in the community any trust in us when we can’t even decide, ‘oh, I’m going to bring it up today and we’re going to vote on it.’”

The council unanimously voted in December to hold the special election in March and authorized the initial cost of $150,000.

County Election Commissioner Laura Rainwater confirmed with the Eagle that if the election were to be delayed until the August primary, no cost will be incurred by the city.

Unaffiliated voters will be able to vote even though the August elecion is a primary election. Included in that election will be a gubernatorial primary and a constitutional amendment to allow elections for state Supreme Court justices.

Wu isn’t the only mayor to use their authority to call a special meeting on their own.

Mayor Brandon Whipple called a special meeting in 2020 ahead of the July 4 holiday to vote on requiring masks in public after Sedgwick County dropped its mask mandate. Whipple’s motion ultimately passed 4-3 after he threatened to continue calling special meetings throughout the day to vote on different iterations of his motion.

The Eagle’s Chance Swaim contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 12:05 PM.