Wichita sales tax proposal is too broad; here’s a People’s Penny plan | Opinion

Wichita is at its best when we decide to build together. We’re a city that knows how to make, fix, and get back up.

That is why I’m not rooting against Wichita Forward, proponent of a seven-year 1% sales tax to pay for public safety capital improvements, programs to address homelessness and affordable housing, convention center improvements, property tax cuts, and part of a new performing arts center.

But I also understand why public reaction has been, shall we say, intense.

A one-cent-per-dollar-spent new tax that touches groceries, bundled into one package, is a high-trust ask in a low-trust moment.

Raw feelings about the ballpark and the water plant deals, and the promises made in order for the deals to happen, remain top of mind.

When people hear “seven years” and “hundreds of millions,” but can’t see the blueprints, timelines, and hard guardrails, it doesn’t feel like investment.

It feels like another risky gamble.

Here is the key point: Wichitans are not anti-investment. We are anti-blank-check investment.

We will support big moves when the deal is clear, the goals are measurable, and the enforcement is real.

That’s why years ago I started drafting the Greater City Plan, built to solve for, among other things, decades of deferred maintenance issues in every Wichita ZIP code.

The revenue would come from the People’s Penny, short-term sales tax increases representing a binding contract with voters, not a brochure.

The following are a few elements from that plan:

1) Build the package in phases — Oklahoma City didn’t transform itself by cramming everything and the kitchen sink into one vote. They built their Metropolitan Area Projects plan — commonly called MAPS — in a repeatable pattern: a time-limited penny sales tax, a defined list of projects, strong public reporting, then onto the next phase after credibility was earned. Wichita can do the same, prioritizing its greatest needs first.

A package as broad as the one we’re presented with now looks doomed to fail whether the election is in March, August, or November. Phasing gives voters a way to say “yes” to what’s ready now, and “not yet” to what needs more work.

2) Publish a real scoreboard — Not just categories, but project-level commitments: what gets built, where, by when, and what it will cost. Put it online, update it monthly, and tie it to independent audits.

3) Build oversight that has teeth — A citizen committee should not be window dressing. Give it full access to contracts and change orders, require public explanations for overruns, and freeze spending on any project that blows past agreed thresholds until a corrective plan is approved.

4) Bake in accountability tools Wichitans can understand — enact maintenance-of-effort rules so City Hall can’t swap existing spending for new tax dollars, put clear clawbacks in incentive deals, and have triggers that require private matching dollars before public dollars flow for major downtown amenities.

I ran for City Council last year because I love Wichita. I’m still here, and will gladly work with the Mayor, the council, Wichita Forward, and the loudest critics in the room to get this done right.

Wichita was called the Peerless Princess of the Plains for a reason. She deserves a plan worthy of her title.

And we all want to watch Wichita win, but the fastest path to a greater city is not a blank check.

It’s a People’s Penny, earned through clarity, phased priorities, and enforceable trust.

— Chris Pumpelly is a Wichita-based communications consultant and former president of the city’s Board of Park Commissioners.