A lower mill levy is part of Sedgwick County’s proposed 2027 budget

Sedgwick County will lower its mill levy for the fourth year in a row, according to a proposed budget presented Wednesday.

The $624 million budget would lower the mill levy from 27.553 mills to 26.842.

That equates to a $8.18 reduction for every $100,000 in a home’s appraised value.

Whether that would mean a decrease on tax bills next year is too soon to tell, as property taxes are figured using the mill levy and property valuations, which continue to climb.

The county will also not capture the full 7.46% assessed value increase it saw this year, and instead will opt to capture 4.2% of that to maintain its budget and lower the mill levy.

“We work for the people, and the people have very clearly said, ‘we cannot afford the rising cost of government. Please do something.’” Commissioner Ryan Baty said. “I think all five of us have heard that loud and clear from the people we work for. So this is a nod to the balance of trying to perform efficient, effective services at a cost that our taxpayers can afford.”

What’s in the budget?

All Sedgwick County employees will get a raise in the 2027 budget.

Sheriff’s Office employees will see a 6% pay increase, Fire employees will see a 8.15% increase, and all other employees will receive a 4% increase. That includes step and scale increases combined.

This comes as the county continues to see improvements in its staffing levels, which declined dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic mainly due to pay and morale issues.

“We are holding our own. Most departments are over 90% staffed,” County Manager Tom Stolz said.

Some of the biggest investments in the 2027 budget are in the Emergency Medical Services budget.

The proposed budget includes adding two new ambulances, 10 new EMTs and five paramedics.

“This will allow for targeted placement into areas of growing call load and population within the county,” the budget reads.

The county will add several other positions across different departments, including two new zookeepers and four positions in the Appraiser’s office.

Another new position includes adding a full-time video technician, mainly as a result of the death of 17-year-old Cedric “CJ” Lofton at the Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center in 2022.

“We were trying to retrieve video data for that incident,” Stolz said. “It was very cumbersome. Did not have any technician dedicated solely to that. So we created a position back then. And if you think about everything that the county runs, all of the different facilities, all of the different touch points, all of the different human services and a jail and all the things that we run, where we’re touching people and all of those, are now surveilled by cameras.”

The county will have two public hearings on the budget.

It’ll host its first hearing July 29. The commission is set to approve its budget right after its second and final hearing, at its regular meeting on Aug. 26.

The county has also launched an online public forum for residents to comment on the budget.

This story was originally published July 15, 2026 at 1:48 PM.