County budget shifts priorities
The buzzword at Monday’s rollout of Sedgwick County’s 2016 budget proposal was “transformational.” Unfortunately, the other words that fit just as well include adversarial, ideological and shortsighted.
The $412.3 million plan was described by County Commissioner Dave Unruh as “essentially the chairman’s budget” – meaning it’s a reflection of the priorities and pent-up frustrations of Richard Ranzau, who was able to take the commission gavel in January after four years in the minority.
Accordingly, the proposal slashes $1 million from health and human services, $500,000 from culture and recreation, and nearly $900,000 from economic development and technical training, while newly spending $500,000 on a program to pick up where the Judge Riddel Boys Ranch left off last year.
It also moves the county toward using cash, rather than bonding, to pay for road and bridge work. Doing so was described by commissioners Monday as “responsible government” and “principled leadership” – as if the budgets and infrastructure spending under now-retired County Manager William Buchanan were irresponsible and unprincipled.
Stoking the distrust between Wichita and the county, the plan’s $689,000 in “cost shifts to city budgets” include a $155,000 cut to city-county planning. Commissioners also suggested USD 259, Wichita and others should make up for the county’s abrupt withdrawal of support in other areas.
And though commissioners expressed interest in gathering public input, some were awfully quick to declare that this or that group will survive and “be fine” with either less or no county support. According to whom? Do they realize how county dollars can help groups leverage other grants and donations?
As Unruh suggested, it would have been preferable to put some of these ideas out for public debate before now. Instead, county leaders set off alarms by notifying 15 organizations that they were facing cuts and by tearing up multiyear agreements with the Sedgwick County Zoo, Exploration Place and the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition – as if county commitments are null and void.
And commissioners’ assertions that the fiscal situation demands “tough decisions” are contradicted by Buchanan’s parting gift of a budget proposal that didn’t break promises or shuffle priorities.
It’s now up to the community to weigh in through Aug. 12 on whether the county should depart so sharply from its long-standing priorities and funding. It’s especially troubling to see the County Commission, which doubles as the county board of health, pull back on funding for immunizations and countering infant mortality while claiming to be focusing on core services.
As it is, the majority commissioners seem hell-bent on veering the county off the course that has won it AAA bond ratings and an outstanding reputation for its role in promoting community health, economic development and quality of life.
For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman
This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "County budget shifts priorities."