Police, taxes, savings: What mayoral candidates think Wichita should do with extra money

The Aug. 1 primary election lands squarely in the middle of city government’s most important annual task — adopting a budget. That involves deciding what to spend money on and setting property tax rates.

For mayoral hopefuls, it’s an opportunity to highlight what city priorities they would focus on and to distinguish themselves in a crowded field of contenders vying for two spots on the November ballot.

The Eagle asked leading candidates what the city should do with an expected $12.6 million budget surplus this year ahead of another projected $14.1 million surplus in 2024.

Some candidates challenging incumbent Mayor Brandon Whipple said at least a portion of that surplus money should be spent on immediate needs, ranging from police staffing to the renovation of aging city facilities.

Bryan Frye and Celeste Racette say that can be done while also lowering the property tax mill levy to offset the increase in assessed value of homes across the city.

Whipple advocates putting the surplus in reserve funds for projected future deficits or to avoid tax rate increases. He said he’s working on a plan that would offer targeted property tax relief for low-income seniors.

Lily Wu has ideas for using the surplus that do not include lowering the mill levy, while Jared Cerullo says eliminating property tax increases has to be the city’s top priority this budget cycle.

City Manager Robert Layton’s budget proposal calls for stashing $14 million in the rainy day fund over the next two years, allocating $5 million to fighting lawsuits against the city and transferring $1 million to Wichita’s economic development fund.

Under that plan, the City Council would not lower the mill levy to offset next year’s projected $12.6 million more in property tax revenues.

Property taxes are calculated by multiplying a percentage of the appraised property value — 11.5% for residential properties and 25% for commercial and industrial properties — by the mill levy and dividing by 1,000. Under the current mill levy, the city would collect $376.76 in property taxes on a $100,000 home.

Taxes can increase or decrease if the city changes the mill levy, though it has remained the same for 30 years. Tax revenues can also increase if the value of properties increases, as it did for this year.

Candidate priorities

Republican City Council member Frye and Libertarian former television journalist Wu both say the city should use some of its extra money to support recruitment and retention efforts within the Wichita Police Department.

“The idea is to take all those surpluses — this year and next year — and sock them away, and I’m like, ‘We can’t afford to wait,’” Frye said.

“This is money that we can use right now to stabilize police staffing.”

The City Council has increased police funding by about $30 million over the last three years, which includes money for 708 commissioned officers. But the department has had difficulties achieving that number. A police spokesperson recently said the department had 608 commissioned officers, with two groups of recruits going through the academy that could add about 30 officers by the end of the year.

Frye said he supports spending an additional $1.5 to $2 million on WPD recruitment and retention. The city’s $715 million budget proposal for 2024 already earmarks $122.5 million for the police department, an increase of more than $12 million from 2023.

Any adjustments in pay, bonuses or benefits for a majority of department employees would require a negotiation with the Fraternal Order of Police. A new contract is not scheduled to be approved until December 2024.

Wu would not commit to a specific dollar amount of surplus that she wants to see put toward police, but she called police staffing her No. 1 priority.

“We need to continue thinking of ways where we can help retain the officers we have and recruit new officers into the police department. And if we don’t get that right, not much else will get better and not much else will matter,” Wu said.

Racette, founder of the Save Century II petition group and a former fraud investigator, said she wants to see this year’s surplus used to turn the faltering Wichita Ice Center into a “premier facility” and renovate the former downtown public library, which the city has put out for bid for anyone wanting to manage it.

“The former public library will not be used by anybody because I have seen the request for proposal they sent to nonprofits who are interested, and you have to put $10 million into repairs to move into the former public library,” Racette said.

“Nobody can afford that. There’s no nonprofit I know that is sitting on a cushion where they can fix that building up. So we need to put the repairs into the former public library, get 25 percent tax credits, and fix that building up, too.”

Whipple said transferring surplus money to the reserves is the only prudent path forward, given that the city’s financial outlook includes potential operating losses between 2025 and 2027.

“What we do truly impacts people’s lives, so we want to make sure that we keep the services that people expect going, even if we have a bad quarter for whatever reason,” Whipple said. “It’s best practices and it’s common sense to put money aside for the unforeseen ups and downs of the future.”

He said he would likely support a police recruitment/retention proposal if Chief Joseph Sullivan put one forward but that simply “throwing money” at the police department will not help rein in violent and non-violent crime in the city.

Cerullo, a former City Council member, also advocated for stashing this year’s surplus, saying the city could face a dire financial situation with the end of federal pandemic relief money. But he wants to hold the line on property taxes next year, which would almost completely negate the 2024 projected surplus.

“If we spend that money now, we are in deep trouble in 2025,” Cerullo said. “I am extremely worried that no matter what, our community is headed towards a significant tax increase (because of rising property valuations), and I am hearing over and over from people that I am talking to knocking doors, they do not want their taxes raised.”

Property taxes

Wichita’s property tax mill levy would continue to remain flat under Layton’s budget proposal for next year, but because of rising property values, the city would collect an additional $12.6 million in property taxes.

Wu, whose campaign is financially backed by the Libertarian group Americans for Prosperity, said she’s content to “hold the line” on the mill levy. Asked if there are areas of the city budget she would advocate for cuts in as mayor, Wu said she would have to conduct a government audit before providing specifics.

Racette, Frye and Cerullo expressed support for lowering the mill levy to keep the city from collecting more property tax revenue.

Racette said she could accomplish that by eliminating wasteful spending and clawing back what she views as handouts to developers. She does not have an exact figure on how much waste she would trim from the budget to fund other projects, and any decisions would require buy-in from other council members and the city manager.

She said she would immediately move to lower the cost of a $6.15 million pickleball project in south Wichita to $3 million, which was the original estimate for the project. Additional savings could come from changes to the city’s contract with Visit Wichita, which receives millions of dollars each year from the city’s transient guest tax and tourism business improvement district taxes, known as TBID, she said.

Frye’s plan calls for using this year’s $12.6 million surplus to hold property taxes steady rather than collect an extra $12.6 million next year. He said additional money for police staffing could be found in the 2024 budget by eliminating some or all of a 5% increase to non-salary spending across departments.

“If you don’t increase that ‘24 non-salary budget by 5 percent, you keep it flat, that’s $4.8 million that you can apply to police recruitment and retention, and then you still have all of the $14 million surplus to apply to reserves for ‘25, ‘26 and ‘27,” Frye said.

Some non-salary priorities slated for additional funding in 2024 include code enforcement aimed at cracking down on blight, upgrading police body cameras and extending hours at city swimming pools.

Cerullo also advocated maintaining the revenue neutral rate (by lowering the mill levy) but did not specify what spending in the budget he would like to see scaled back. He said the council has wasted too much money giving incentives and sweetheart deals to developers, a practice he said could be curtailed to preserve funds for city services.

Whipple derided efforts to cut the mill levy as dangerously shortsighted and reminiscent of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts, which Whipple opposed during his time in the Legislature. He said wealthy residents with the most expenses houses would benefit the most from that approach.

“To hold the revenue neutral rate — to say ‘hey, we’re not going to accept any changes in the economy’ basically, take a snapshot today and say this is how much everything next year’s going to cost — the people who make the most money in that situation are the richest people with the biggest houses,” Whipple said.

“The overwhelming majority of that effort would go to the richest people because it’s the Brownback tax plan but instead of applied on income tax, it’s applied on property tax. So, the people who need the relief are going to save like 20 bucks, and the people who really don’t need it are going to save thousands of dollars.”

Whipple said he’s working with staff to produce a property tax relief pilot program to supplement an existing state program, SAFESR, which refunds 75% of property taxes for Kansans 65 and older who live in a house valued no more than $350,000 and who earn no more than $22,000 a year.

Whipple said the city’s pilot program would set aside roughly $1 million and refund most if not all of the remaining 25% of property tax costs for Wichita seniors who provide confirmation that they participated in the state relief program.

The city will hold two more budget hearings on Aug. 15 and Aug. 22, when the council is set to adopt the 2024-2025 budget.

Contributing: Chance Swaim of The Wichita Eagle

This story was originally published July 27, 2023 at 3:52 PM.