Sales tax mailers sent to non-Wichita residents

An estimated 5,300 educational mailers on the proposed Wichita sales tax were sent to non-Wichita residents, city officials say.

The mixup was the result of a mistake by the vendor, which sent the mailers based on ZIP codes that Wichita shares with some neighboring communities, said City Manager Robert Layton.

The vendor has agreed to pick up the cost for the mailers that were sent to non-Wichita residents, according to an employee at Office Aide, the vendor.

About 173,000 sales tax mailers were sent out by the city ahead of next week’s election. City officials said the decision to send out the mailers came in response to misinformation being spread about the 1-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax.

The cost to send the mailers was about $47,000, officials said.

The City Council voted in August to put the sales tax on the ballot. The tax would expire after five years and is projected to raise nearly $400 million for four projects: expanding an existing water source for a future water supply and to protect against a severe drought, street repair, job development and public transit.

If the sales tax is approved, people in Wichita would pay an 8.15 percent total sales tax.

This story was originally published October 29, 2014 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Sales tax mailers sent to non-Wichita residents."