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UG passes budget with 2-mill city decrease; DA’s CIU funds tied up

The Unified Government Commission tonight approved a $376 million budget with a 2-mill city tax decrease, but property tax bills will likely go up slightly because of a 7.9 percent average valuation increase.

The 2-mill decrease is a reduction of about 5 percent, according to UG officials. When residential taxpayers get their property tax bills, if they have a $100,000 home with an average 7.9 percent valuation increase, they may be paying $92 more than last year. If their valuation did not change from last year, they may be paying a little less than last year.

Commissioner Gayle Townsend asked the commission tonight to allow the Wyandotte County District Attorney to have the immediate use of the funds for the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), and not to put them in a special fund where he could not use them at the present time.

The Kansas City, Kansas, police chief and other law enforcement asked for a state attorney general’s review of the DA’s new CIU program on Monday night, and the UG commissioners then decided Monday to put the CIU funds into a special fund while awaiting a review.

The wording of the budget resolution that was passed tonight says that the funds will be in a special account under the county administrator, and will be held until the full commission authorizes it for expenditure, the UG attorney said. The actual wording for this fund does not say that it depends on the attorney general’s review. It’s up to the commission to decide when this funding will be utilized, the UG attorney stated.

Commissioner Townsend said her reading of the DA’s letter showed that there were backstops in this program that would preclude the DA “from willy-nilly letting people out of jail.” The cases would be fully investigated. The CIU program would make sure that no one spends more time in jail than they should when they are indeed innocent, she said.

“Just as the sheriff and police chief have come to us in the past for money, equipment and staffing they need to do their jobs, I would suggest we give the DA the same thing and make it immediately available to him,” she said. Commissioner Townsend said she expected to discuss this issue at the 5 p.m. budget workshop tonight, but that meeting was canceled.

A motion by Commissioner Townsend to immediately free the money set aside for the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit was not allowed by Mayor David Alvey Thursday night because another motion for the budget approval was already on the floor.

On a 7-3 vote, with Commissioners Townsend, Ann Brandau Murguia and Harold Johnson voting no, the budget passed, with the provision in it that ties up the CIU program funding. While the CIU funding was authorized, it will not be available yet.

“This will be revisited and you will have the opportunity to appropriate the money as allocated,” Mayor Alvey told Commissioner Townsend.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree released this statement after the meeting:

“First we congratulate the UG Board of Commissioners on approving the 2019 Budget. Their hard work is truly appreciated. As for the funding of the Conviction Integrity Unit, we are not dismayed. The commission was waiting on State Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s input. He has stated he does not have the legal jurisdiction over trial-level cases in the District Attorney’s Office, which includes CIU cases.

“It is entirely possible the full commission was not privy to this information. Now that this is known, we believe the commission will address the issue and we remain hopeful the funds will be allocated, soon.”

Mayor Alvey told the budget staff tonight that they did a good job of allocating the resources, limited as they are.

The UG has been working since March on the budget, has held many meetings on it, and surveyed residents to determine their priorities.

UG Administrator Doug Bach said the general fund budget is based on revenues coming in from other sources, including the renewal of the three-eighths cent sales tax for public safety and infrastructure, which is up for election on Aug. 7.

If the renewal of the public safety three-eighths cent sales tax does not pass, Bach said he would be asking the UG Commission to reconsider the 2-mill reduction.

A 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment was approved for most UG employees, and a 3 percent raise went to police and sheriff personnel.

A UG spokesman stated that the city’s property tax rate has been cut for three years in a row. The past two years’ reduction was a total 8.8 percent cut. The three years’ cut totaled almost 14 percent.

According to UG figures, in 1996, when the city and county consolidated, a property owner would have paid $1,116 on a $100,000 house. Now, the owner of a $100,000 house will pay $884 in UG property tax in 2019, the spokesman stated. It is a net 21 percent reduction in property taxes during the past 20 years.

The new Kansas City, Kansas, property tax rate will be 38 mills, down from 40 mills last year. Twelve of the 25 largest cities in Kansas now have higher property taxes than Kansas City, Kansas, the spokesman stated.

Wyandotte County’s property tax rate will stay the same this year as last year, around 38.88 mills.

The city and county together make up less than half of the total tax bill, with other taxing entities adding to the property tax bill, including the public schools, the community college and the state of Kansas.

According to the UG spokesman, about $6.2 million of the $12.4 million in paid-off STAR (sales tax revenue) bond revenues from the Village West Tourism District are being used for property tax relief, $4.2 million for capital construction projects, and $2 million for new program initiatives. The STAR bond sales tax revenues are being spent on public safety, the SOAR blight reduction effort, street and road maintenance, and other community services, according to the spokesman.

The budget resolutions that passed tonight include the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) fee on the Board of Public Utilities bill at the same as it is currently, 11.9 percent. The PILOT fee passed 9-1, with Commissioner Tom Burroughs voting no.

Sewer service rates would increase five percent, approved on a 9-1 vote with Commissioner Burroughs voting no.

The library board tax rate, the downtown Self-Supporting Municipal Improvement District (SSMID) tax rate, and the 2018-2019 action plan for the CDBG were unanimously approved.

More extensive information about the UG budget is at www.wycokck.org.

For an earlier story, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/ug-budget-approval-scheduled-thursday-night/

This story has been updated.

Summer of Oz events in full swing

Dorothy and the Tin Man in the production of “The Wizard of Oz” signed autographs earlier today at the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame, Bonner Springs. The live theater production continues today, Friday and Saturday at the Providence Medical Center Amphitheater, 130th and State Avenue. (Photo by Steve Rupert)

Summer of Oz events in Wyandotte County are in full swing today, with “The Wizard of Oz” production continuing at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. The play is at the Providence Medical Center Amphitheater, 130th and State, Bonner Springs.

The National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame had a busy day of Oz-related activities today, that will continue Friday and Saturday. There is an admission charge. For information, see http://www.aghalloffame.com/oz-comes-to-kansas/.

The Wyandotte County Museum at 126th and State Avenue, inside Wyandotte County Park, also has display cases and other items with the “Wizard of Oz” theme. There is no admission charge to the museum. See wycomuseum.org.

Other museums and places around town also have activities tied to the “Wizard of Oz.” For more information, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/wizard-of-oz-production-opens-tonight-at-amphitheater/.

The Ag Hall has many activities planned in conjunction with the “Wizard of Oz” this week, including a corn maze. (Photo by Steve Rupert)

The Wyandotte County Museum at 126th and State has several displays about “The Wizard of Oz” currently. (Photo by Steve Rupert)

Train rides for children are part of the Ag Hall’s “Summer of Oz” events. (Photo by Steve Rupert)

The Paul Mesner Puppets will appear in a Wizard of Oz performance at noon and 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Ag Hall. (Photo by Steve Rupert)

There’s also a tornado-themed children’s slide, the Twisted Twister, at the Ag Hall. (Photo by Steve Rupert)

Crafts and activities are part of the “Summer of Oz” activities at the Ag Hall. (Photo by Steve Rupert)

Empty seats greet Kobach in Wyandotte County

Two persons waited to see Kris Kobach’s campaign rally in Wyandotte County on Thursday afternoon, but then left before it started, saying they had to go to another appointment. (Staff photo)

by Mary Rupert

The Kobach for Governor Victory Tour came to Kansas City, Kansas, on Thursday afternoon, but there were just empty seats greeting the candidate.

As Kris Kobach, a Republican candidate for governor, made a tour of several cities on Thursday, he came from a group of about 30 supporters in Leavenworth, to none in Wyandotte County. Kobach and incumbent Gov. Jeff Colyer are the frontrunners in the GOP campaign for governor, with the primary election on Aug. 7.

Kobach stopped at the Dr. Burke KCKCC-TEC Center at 6565 State Ave., interviewed a short while with two journalists, met with the college president, then went to his next stop in Johnson County, which was expected to have a much bigger audience. Other stops had 40 to 50 persons attending, according to a Kobach staff member.

Two women had driven over from Johnson County to hear Kobach speak in Wyandotte County, but they left before he got there, as his tour was delayed, and they said they had to go to an appointment.

While here, Kobach commented on the Kansas City Star’s story today (www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article215374130.html) about his work as an attorney representing small towns in immigration cases.

Kris Kobach, a GOP candidate for governor, spoke with journalists on Thursday afternoon in Wyandotte County. (Staff photo)

He said the article “was a good example of fake news,” and rebutted several points in the story. He said every case he handled involved a town that had already passed an immigration ordinance and then asked him to defend it. In addition, he said all the cities did not lose in court; two won and two lost. Also, he said another error is that ordinances are not being enforced in two cities that won in court, but the ordinances are being enforced.

Another theme of the article was that he gained vast wealth by representing the cities, he said. However, he said averaging it out over a period of years, it was less than $50,000 a year. Kobach also criticized the involvement in the article of ProPublica, which he claimed was left-leaning.

On another topic, the ACLU today sent out a news release saying that taxpayers will have to pay about $26,000 in attorney’s fees to the ACLU and in expenses on a contempt charge against Kobach from federal court. The case was in connection to the state’s proof-of-citizenship law for voter registration.

“Tens of thousands of innocent Kansas voters lost their right to vote because of Sec. Kobach’s policies,” an ACLU official stated in the news release today. The law was struck down, and Kobach faced a contempt charge.

The court’s decision on the fees is online at https://ecf.ksd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2016cv2105-554. The court document says the defendant is “Secretary of State Kris Kobach.”

Kobach said the court has ruled the defendant is the state of Kansas, and when the state is sued, the official doesn’t pay the fees himself. Colyer has sent out a news release saying that Kobach shouldn’t use the state’s funds to pay the fees.

“The other thing Colyer doesn’t seem to understand, is that the specific thing the judge is looking at that was the basis of the citation, is the failure of certain counties to send out notices to voters who were covered by the voter injunction,” Kobach said. Voters all received one notice, but the judge wanted them to receive two notices, he said.

“My office instructed the counties to do so,” he said, but the counties had a lot going on in the weeks preceding the election, and some counties didn’t send out the notice.

“If the counties aren’t able to follow the instruction, that isn’t the fault of the secretary of state’s office,” Kobach said.

He also said they are planning to appeal the ruling. If there is a penalty to be paid to the ACLU, the state would pay it, he added.

Kobach said his two last-minute messages are about taxes and illegal immigration, his top issues.

“We have to cut taxes,” Kobach said. Taxes are higher in Kansas than surrounding states, he said. “I’m also planning to put on a property tax lid, so your house can’t be reappraised any more than 2 percent in any given year higher than it was. People are getting killed with these reappraisals because it is a stealth tax hike.”

Other candidates won’t even sign a no-tax pledge, he said.

Kobach said people across the state are upset that Kansas is “giving welfare benefits to illegal aliens, giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, and that we have sanctuary counties in Kansas. That’s going to stop when I’m governor.”

He said his first executive order would be to require all state agencies to use the E-Verify system to make sure all state workers are here legally. The second thing he would do is to ask the Legislature to pass along the federal tax windfall to the taxpayers, he said. The bill came five votes short in the 2017 session, and he will ask the Legislature to bring it to his desk within a month of taking office.

Kobach said his latest poll shows him ahead by 9 percent over Colyer. He was confident that he could defeat any of the Democrats that will be elected, and he viewed them as all on the left.

If Greg Orman succeeds in collecting enough signatures to be placed on the general election ballot, Kobach said it would be two liberals running against Kobach, a conservative. It would probably help Kobach, but not necessarily, he said.