Sales tax exemption one of city of Wichita’s potential legislative goals

Wichita is primed to push the Kansas Legislature for an exemption to the state formula that determines how local sales tax revenue is divided.

It means the city and Sedgwick County will likely be opponents in Topeka over sales tax distribution in the upcoming legislative session.

City Council members reviewed their draft legislative agenda during a city workshop Tuesday. They’ll use a final version of the agenda to lobby lawmakers in Topeka once the legislative session starts Jan. 11.

The draft included a sales tax proposal that Mayor Jeff Longwell and council member Pete Meitzner had previously pushed for earlier this year.

They say the city, whose residents make up 76 percent of the Sedgwick County population, is not getting its fair share of the 1-cent-on-the-dollar countywide sales tax. The city will generate about $77 million in sales tax in 2016, but the city government receives about $59 million of that, according to city data.

“We just want the money that we collect in Wichita,” Longwell said Tuesday. “When we are collecting $17 million a year more than we’re getting back, that certainly is leaking oil.”

“That’s too big of a disparity to live with anymore,” he added.

Longwell said the city is not trying to change the formula for the entire state. But he said the formula needs to be tweaked for the “needs of our community.”

“That old formula that’s been around since 1985 no longer fits our makeup of priorities and population base,” he said.

But the county’s lobbyists will likely oppose the city’s push. Most county commissioners aren’t warm to the idea.

Commissioner Jim Howell said the proposal would mean the city would be “going after someone else’s revenue.” Voters soundly rejected a citywide sales tax proposal last November.

“It just shifts that burden over to Sedgwick County,” Howell said. “That’s money we’re using for road and bridge projects and for services for Sedgwick County citizens across the entire county.”

Longwell said the only impact on Sedgwick County would be its road and bridge priorities.

City Manager Robert Layton said the proposal will be an official City Council position if council members vote to include it in the final legislative agenda.

Here are other things the city of Wichita could lobby for or against in 2016:

▪ Oppose redirecting state money from the transportation budget

▪ Support full funding for the state’s T-Works highway program, whose funds have been raided by lawmakers to plug revenue shortfalls in recent years. “Just tell them to close the bank of KDOT,” Longwell said to one of the city’s lobbyists, Kimberly Svaty.

▪ Support for cultural arts districts. Cities would be able to grant a tax credit on property within the district, which would increase awareness of and support for the arts.

▪ Continue state economic development programs

▪ Oppose any limits to cities’ annexation authority

▪ Oppose significant changes to property tax lid

▪ Oppose more changes to lobbying disclosure, reporting rules

▪ Support passenger rail service in Wichita

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Sales tax exemption one of city of Wichita’s potential legislative goals."