by Mary Rupert
The Unified Government Commission on Monday night overrode Mayor Tyrone Garner’s veto of a resolution to exceed the revenue neutral rate.
No resident who spoke at the public hearing Monday expressed a desire to raise local property taxes, but there were many pleas to the commission to lower taxes.
At the end of the 2.5-hour meeting, Commissioner Angela Markley’s motion to approve a resolution to exceed the revenue neutral rate passed 8-2, with Commissioners Chuck Stites and Tom Burroughs voting no.
Mayor Garner then vetoed the commission’s resolution. The UG’s chief legal counsel, Misty Brown, said the mayor could veto an item, something rarely done in the past, under the charter ordinance provisions 114 and 281. The commission could override the veto with seven votes, she added.
The commission then voted to override the veto on Markley’s next motion, and it was overridden on an 8-2 vote with Stites and Burroughs voting no.
The “revenue neutral rate” idea is something that passed the Kansas Legislature stating that if a local government budget’s mill levy rate produces a higher property tax revenue in dollars than last year’s mill levy, then it has to hold a public hearing on it. This year’s calculations use the new assessed valuation, and this year, the valuations increased significantly. Monday night’s public hearings were on exceeding the revenue neutral rate, and also the UG’s regular budget public hearing on the budget.
The proposed $432 million UG budget that has been published is not the final budget, however, and the UG Commission will have the opportunity to lower it in the future before the final vote. At a recent budget workshop, a straw poll found many commissioners supported a 2 mill reduction on the county side of the budget.
Residents turn out to oppose high taxes
One resident who lives on 59th Street told the commission that she bought a house that had been renovated that cost $88,000. The assessed valuation went up to where the home was valued at $200,000, she said.
The taxes when she moved in were $1,600, and in a half-year, went up to $1,900, and the next year, to $3,800, she said.
“I can’t afford $3,800,” she said. “I’m paying $300 more (per month) in two years in property taxes.”
Her remarks were applauded by some in the audience.
Melvin Wiilliams, a former candidate, said the UG is not fully consolidated, and the UG should consolidate more and figure out how to improve city services. He talked about weeds growing taller than him in a yard on his street, and they can’t get anything done about cutting it. He also said if older people can barely afford their medications, what makes the UG think they can afford extra increases on their property taxes?
Don White, who owns property in Kansas City, Kansas, said they are almost operating at a negative because of increases in property taxes and insurance, with low-income tenants in the properties. When they pass down the increases to the tenants, the tenants can’t afford them, he said. It puts people in a Catch 22, and it pushes people out of the county, he added. Tenants are forced to seek a place to live 50 or 60 miles out of the county, such as St. Joseph or Topeka, he added.
A lot of people on the northeast end are getting priced out as new developments are moving into the general area, and see the northeast as a good investment because it is only around 10 minutes from downtown Kansas City, Missouri, according to White. Those who can’t pay their taxes because of the higher valuations are going to lose their homes, he said.
“People here for years see themselves being priced out of their homes,” he said.
Chester Owens, a former Kansas City, Kansas, City Council member, said he understood where the UG Commission is. However, he pointed out that senior citizens are at a disadvantage.
He cited the example of a neighborhood group that owns six vacant lots, and each increased in assessed value by 300 percent. Why was there such a dramatic increase, he asked.
Most of the members of their neighborhood group are senior citizens. Seniors are hurting, he said. Neighborhood groups do a lot and get nothing back, he said. They have a community garden where they distribute food, but he is wondering how they will continue to do this.
Services have declined and are rapidly declining, he said. Junkyards are appearing not far from his neighborhood. Also, vehicles race up and down 10th and Washington, sometimes at 80 mph, he said.
“We need to look at people in addition to properties,” Owens said. “It’s totally out of balance now.”
“We as seniors are hurting,” Owens said. “$200 may not seem a lot to you all.” But it’s a “huge monumental amount” to seniors and something has to change, he said.
Dr. Tammy Kautz, a Kansas City, Kansas, resident who is a special education teacher, said she bought a house here to retire. She used to be angry at colleagues who drove in from different counties to work here, but now she understands it, she said.
Her mortgage showed a $2,100 shortfall in escrow when valuations went up, and now they’re asking for more, according to Kautz. She wanted to retire, but came back to work because of the teacher shortage.
“How did my house increase in valuation by $30,000?” Kautz asked. “In one year. All I did was replace the windows.”
Now she said she is thinking that with taxes going up, she may move to a different county.
Andrea McGill of Kansas City, Kansas, said the middle class always gets the short end of the stick. They pay to the hilt and nobody helps them, she said. Years ago, residents were told taxes would take a huge jump and then would decrease as a result of new development. Then taxes went down about 5 percent, nowhere near the amount they went up, she said.
The times are really hard, and families are really struggling now, according to McGill. “If we can’t help ourselves, we definitely can’t help anyone else,” she said.
The UG also received a written comment from a resident that said, “You are taxing people out of their homes.” She may relocate, and added, “On my way out I will vote you all out of office.”
Faith Rivera, a member of the parks and recreation board who also recently ran unsuccessfully for state representative in the 37th District, said she lives in Wyandotte County as a roommate in a large house with five people in it because she can’t afford to live here on her own.
“People in our community are struggling,” she said. “You see more homeless people here because of taxes and BPU.”
As taxes are being raised, many people are not seeing their wages increased, according to Rivera.
“What you’re doing is you’re driving us out,” she said. “We fight to stay here in our community, we love our community. We fight to be here.”
“I run and I ask people to run for office,” Rivera said. “I’m asking the community to think about running for any of you guys’ offices because we need to change. We need people to understand what it’s like to live on this side of the pulpit.”
Another speaker is a lifelong citizen who worked 37 years until she could not physically work any more. She said with retirement, there is a fixed salary that doesn’t go up and at the same time, inflation.
She is at a point she can’t afford to live here any longer, she said at the meeting. She said a number of elderly people have been forced to move out and live somewhere else. At their new locations, their utility bills went down, their taxes went down and their quality of life went up, she said.
“We can do better than this for our citizens,” she said. “The more I find out, the more disillusioned I am in Wyandotte County.”
The new mayor is hoping for a fresh start, but something’s got to change, she said.
Tasha Payne also spoke about her property taxes at the meeting.
It was her opinion that people could go anywhere and pay lower taxes. She included total taxes, such as the UG placing the PILOT tax on the Board of Public Utilities’ bills.
She said property taxes going up are pushing her out the door.
Another speaker who lives on State Avenue said she was on a fixed income and her property valuation went up $32,000 from last year.
“I will be moving out of this city, because of the taxes, if something isn’t done fairly soon, because I can’t afford to live here. I can move to another state and live high on the hog, because I can’t here,” she said.
Her property has no sidewalks and no sewer. It is on a septic tank. Cars race down State Avenue from one bar to another, she said. There are children who live along State, also, she said.
“I would like to know what’s going to be done,” she said.
Another speaker is a 79-year-old senior citizen who raised eight children in Wyandotte County and worked for 30-plus years for the federal government. She worked hard to buy a house for her children and herself, she said.
She lives in the area of 64th Terrace and said everything is higher, including her valuation at $9,000 more. Her car insurance also is higher.
“We worked hard to have something and we can’t have it,” the resident said. “I worked hard and long to have a decent life.”
“I just need some consideration because a lot of people in my neighborhood are moving out,” she said.
She also cited an example of skyrocketing utility bills for a relative, and said the county needs to do something about it.
Carolyn Wyatt, who lives in the northeast area, said some vacant lots are now taxed $300.
She told the commissioners that their names would not be on her slate next year if they don’t hear the people. “We’re going door-to-door,” she said.
The government taxes the northeast area, but doesn’t invest in it, according to Wyatt.
“If you’re not advocating for the northeast area, your money goes to other areas,” she said to the commissioners.
John Coyle, an Episcopal priest, said 20 years ago he came to the Kansas City area and started purchasing houses in Kansas City, Kansas, and rehabbing them. He felt it was a sense of ministry and a call to provide quality housing, he said. The homes have good quality, central heating and air, and they try to hold rents as tightly as possible, he said. But in the past few years he had to raise rents for the first time.
He had to raise rents 6 to 8 percent to deal with an insurance hike and now tax hikes, he said.
“When taxes jump the way they do, they burden the most vulnerable,” Coyle said.
He has been a leader in large institutions and understands the complexities and difficulty of decisions they have to make, he said. At the same time, he asked the commission to consider the possibility of using a lower mill rate.
A mill rate can drop down a little and still bring in a few more dollars, and he encouraged the commission to consider that.
Karl Schottler, owner of the Paramount Landscape in Kansas City, Kansas, lives in Lenexa. He said when his business located here, there were affordable taxes and the community was welcoming to his business.
In 2018, the value of his business went up 46 percent in one year, he said. Since then it went up 49 percent from 2018.
“They talk about the mill levy coming down and how competitive they are against other cities and counties,” he said. “It’s because assessed valuation skyrocketed and that’s killing everybody.”
The assessed valuation process needs looking into, he added.
“If I had to do it all over again, I don’t know I’d locate my business in KCK, because it’s not a big corporation, it doesn’t get tax abatements. You push the burden down on small businesses and residents,” he said. “You’ve got to fund homeless shelters because they can’t afford to stay in their homes.”
Funding for homeless shelter
Several speakers at the public hearing advocated for funding for a homeless shelter, and asked the UG Commission to make it an annual fixture in the budget, not an addition to it. Some of the speakers read the same statement.
Rob Santel, director of programs at Cross-Lines Community Outreach, said the homeless population in Wyandotte County is increasing in size.
The community is about three months away from extremely cold weather and has work to do to come up with a plan to have something in place for the homeless this winter, he said. He asked the commission to come up with funding to figure out how to do this on a recurring annual basis. It should be part of the annual budget process, he said.
Last year, 275 different individuals were served on 38 nights, he said. The effort put programs in place to get people into permanent housing, he said.
Santel also asked the UG to designate a point person with decision-making authority in this process. He also asked them to identify funding and what location would be used. The Reardon Center was used as a shelter for the homeless on the coldest nights last year.
He also asked the UG to work with social service entities that have a role in this effort. Also, the UG should work with Kansas City, Missouri, to have a regional response to homelessness.
Charles Carney, who lives in the Prescott neighborhood, said he and his family began taking in unhoused people in 2004. There are two to four people living with them at any given time in the house, sometimes known as the St. Lawrence Worker House.
They take in the homeless for free, voluntarily, before extreme winter weather hits.
The burden of housing should not be on residents alone, he said.
“I beg of you to vote for a budget that stands for justice, for human rights and for dignity,” Carney said.
Rachel Russell, director of community engagement at Cross-Lines Community Outreach, and a member of the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education, spoke in favor of including the extreme weather project for the houseless in the UG’s annual budget process rather than scrambling every year. She also favored a designated point of contact in the UG to communicate directly with partners, and UG collaboration with Kansas City, Missouri, for extreme weather efforts concerning the houseless.
“Many partners are here tonight to assure not one more person dies in Wyandotte County” as a result of the winter cold, she said.
“I don’t have the golden solution,” she said. “We are seeing an uptick and it’s heartbreaking.”
She asked for the UG’s support in in addressing the needs of the most vulnerable in the community.
Nehemiah Rosell, a licensed social worker in Kansas City, Kansas, working with the unhoused population here for seven years, worked at the cold weather shelter last year.
He said there was an acute need for the extreme weather project in the community. Last year at this time it was at capacity before opening its doors, and they had to send people to other resources, he said.
The homeless point in time count in the Kansas City area found 201 who were unsheltered or in the cold weather shelter for one night, an increase from last year, he said. More than 120 unhoused people were waiting for housing.
The vast majority of the unhoused were east of 18th Street, and the Reardon Center was the prime location for the homeless people, because it was near programs and a bus line for transportation.
Rosell said he appreciates the concerns about the property tax, and it wasn’t an either-or question about funding for the houseless project or reducing taxes.
“I’m not asking to raise taxes for it,” he said. “This project is pennies compared to the budget as a whole.”
Also speaking in favor of funding to address homelessness and their other provisions of Santel’s request were Kristin Olsen and Mel Winter. Winter works in community advocacy and outreach for Our Spot KC. Our Spot worked with other agencies, social service providers to help provide cold weather shelter, she said. The organization provides services to LGBTQ+ persons, who are overrepresented among the homeless population, she said.
Kevin Bailey, a resident of Bonner Springs who owns investment properties, said he doesn’t believe it’s the government’s job to provide a cold weather shelter for the homeless.
“We have houses of faith and places of worship with tax-exempt status,” he said. People of faith contribute to provide for the homeless, he said.
It was his opinion that people are being driven out of their homes because of taxes. If the commission wants prosperity for people here, it needs to lower taxes, he said.
Commission comments on revenue neutral rate
Commissioner Gayle Townsend pointed out that the commission votes on the mill levy only, not on the appraised values. Appraisals come out of the appraiser’s office and the commission has no control over them. Commissioner Townsend said the appraisals are based on market forces, if there is demand to raise housing prices. While the appraiser’s office receives funding from the commission, it operates under rules from the state.
The commission has discussed getting more housing stock for Wyandotte County in order to reduce the demand on housing, which has increased valuations, she said.
Commissioner Townsend also said of the total property tax bills going to residents, the UG only spends 46 percent. The rest goes to other entities, including school districts and the community college.
Currently the UG budget has a $4.3 million deficit in the city general fund, and that is where a majority of the UG funds are paid from, she said. Police, fire and roads and streets funds come from there. Larger decreases in the budget might have to come from personnel, which is where most of the funds are going.
“You’ve asked us to make some hard choices and that’s what we’re looking at,” she said.
Commissioner Tom Burroughs said the large increases in assessed valuations are causing problems on all property owners, even commissioners. They cannot continue to operate in the same way and expect things to change, he said.
There were large increases in assessed valuation, yet the UG continues to keep money coming in and has not addressed expenses, he said. It is either a spending problem or a revenue problem.
“I believe there’s money in the budget, to become a little more revenue neutral,” he said.
“I want property tax relief,” he said. “I want my taxes lower.”
Commissioner Christian Ramirez said he has heard people asking for property tax relief and at the same time, an increase in services. He said he needs to find a balance between the two.
He supported the 2 mill reduction on the county side, which is more healthy, he said. It can withstand it and be more sustainable, while the city side cannot, he added.
He agreed they need to look at how property is assessed.
When he ran for office, property tax was a top issue, he said. Over the years the commission has lowered the mill rate, but the assessed value keeps going up. If homes are selling more around a resident, the assessed valuation will go up, he said, but he did not think they were going up as exorbitantly as they are assessed.
“I want property tax relief; I don’t want us to cut too much,” he said. In the past they have cut too much and had to raise taxes again the next year, he said.
He did not think the revenue neutral rate is the right way to get to a property tax reduction.
“We can lower it little by little every year,” he said. He did not want to cut services when residents also are asking for better services, he said.
Commissioner Ramirez noted that the interim county administrator is looking for efficiencies. The public works department reported at an earlier meeting on Monday night that it had created some cost savings by training in-house instead of going out of town to a training session. Creating cost savings efficiencies is something that should be done through all departments, he said.
He said he would be committed to reductions next year, working to find efficiencies and drive down costs.
Commissioner Harold Johnson said the budget showed expenditures of all funds at $432 million, and he asked about revenues from all funds. Budget director Reginald Lindsay said that figure is $425 million.
Commissioner Johnson said the expenditures are structurally unbalanced as they don’t match the revenues.
Lindsey said the budget is balanced because they have a fund balance to spend from to make it balanced.
Johnson maintained it was structurally unbalanced by $7 million.
“I’ve always been one who advocates we don’t need to touch the fund balance unless we have no other choice,” he said. It means they still have work to do and do it in a climate where constituents are asking that they lower taxes, he said.
“It makes it hard to lower taxes when we already have a $7 million hole,” Commissioner Johnson said.
In light of the increased valuation, the commission should protect senior citizens and those who are disabled, he added.
He said he feels now is not the time to lower the mill levy further.
They have been approached by the public works director letting them know they need an average of $20 million more a year to deal with the No. 1 issue of streets and roads, from a citizen survey, he said.
Better amenities are needed in parks particularly east of I-635, and Commissioner Mike Kane is advocating for a new park west of I-435, Johnson said.
The sheriff has appeared twice before the commission to ask to increase the level of pay, as they can’t compete with the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department, he said.
“The math doesn’t math for me,” Johnson said.
They heard comments about the need for shelter for the houseless on Monday, a national problem that also is here, he said.
The commission can’t listen to the needs of the community in terms of the things they have or don’t have, and also cut the revenue source, he said. Comparing revenue to expenses, there is a $7 million shortfall, he said.
Commissioner Chuck Stites said it pulls at the heartstrings to hear people who can’t afford or make decisions to buy medications, put gas in the car, visit the family or put dinner on the table.
The budget is out of balance, and they need to start looking at better ways to take care of it, he said. If it means cutting services, they have to start cutting services.
The community should stop building big new facilities, because it can’t afford them, he said.
The UG Commission wanted to have a meeting in one room with the other taxing entities but that is yet to happen, he said. The UG Commission is facing the brunt of these decisions, he added.
The UG has 46 percent of the property tax bill, with the rest of the jurisdictions at 54.
“We don’t even control half of it,” Commissioner Sittes said. He encouraged those at the meeting who were there to talk about taxes to reach out to the other taxing entities, as they need to hear the same thing.
“I am for tax relief,” Commissioner Stites said. “We have to do it.”
He said the state may require a certain amount in reserve funds, while the UG may have funds in excess of it.
“Let’s get rid of that money,” he said. It can be passed on to the constituents for tax relief, he suggested.
In the 2017-2018 budget, when the city mill levy was reduced by 2 mills, the commission was told the county side was in trouble and the city side could handle the reduction, and now it’s just the opposite, he said.
He said they don’t have to figure out ways to spend more money coming in, but they should figure out ways to get it back to the people.
Commissioner Mike Kane said he has mentioned a new park in Piper at every single budget year, because there is not one west of I-435 on the north side.
He recalled that one year the commission lowered taxes and the following year they had to raise taxes, and had to have layoffs for employees.
They can lower the mill levy 2 mills on the county side, but they have to be careful not to cut too deep, he said.
While it might please more people if they lowered the mill levy more, COVID’s not over yet and they don’t know where it’s going, he said.
“If you dig too deep, what services do we give you that you don’t want,” he asked. They are already shorthanded in police, fire and sheriff’s departments, he said. They don’t give credit to their employees enough, he added.
Commissioner Kane noted that the public works department’s idea to do training in-house, saving money, was something unique that can be expanded on in the other departments.
They can never lower taxes to the level that everybody wants, but he also doesn’t want to lower it this year and raise it next year, he said.
Commissioner Tom Burroughs said it is a tremendous burden for a resident to see a $300 increase per month. The proposed budget with its half-mill reduction adds up to $17.25 a month or $1.43 a month, he said, for a homeowner.
In a small business it would be $125 a year, a reduction of $10.45 a month over a year.
If they want to do meaningful tax relief, they are going to have to make some tough decisions, he said.
He asked the commission to give consideration to an independent audit recently presented to the UG.
Commissioner Johnson said he appreciated that they can agree to disagree in civility.
The average benefit to the tax base in terms of actual money in the pocket cannot be compared to the actual benefit in terms of amenities and need for basic services that are still paramount in the community, he said.
The northeast needs a lot, and constituents do talk about the need to reduce assessed valuations. He said the UG should look out for the elderly and disabled and put a ceiling where they would not pay as much as others. The needs in the parks are egregious, he said, with improvements needed. There are many needs, he added.
“When our community is telling us this every single year, the hard decision is whether to cut or not to cut,” he said.
The hard decision also is whether the needs outweigh the money coming in, he said. To hear that the budget is structurally imbalanced tells him the needs outweigh, he added.
“I do not believe that lowering the mill levy at the same time is the prudent route when we’re already structurally imbalanced,” Commissioner Johnson said.
Commissioner Stites said it’s structurally imbalanced on the city side, not the county side, which is why they’re asking for the 2 mill reduction on the county side.
“I want it to come out of the county side, because the county side affects every citizen in Wyandotte County, not just the citizens of Kansas City, Kansas,” he said. The county side also includes Bonner Springs and Edwardsville.
Commissioner Melissa Bynum said she faced the same tax bills as everyone else.
“Any of us is easily 30 to 60 days away from homelessness. It just takes one devastating thing to happen to your family, and there you are,” she said.
Commissioner Bynum said the commissioners are managing the same way as everyone else, as best they can.
People inside the UG are looking for creative and innovative ways to bring savings to the UG, she said. They heard an innovative, problem-solving way from the public works, transit and parks to reduce a potential large expense from a federal mandate, by providing their own in-house training.
The valuation from the county appraiser’s office was $17,000 higher for her home in April, and she called it a “win” because it was not $30,000 higher, she said.
The county appraiser is appointed by the county administrator, works in a county building, and the county is required by law to pay for that department. The appraiser follows state-mandated functions, she said. There are multiple departments similar to that, where the county pays for it and it carries out state-mandated functions. These others include the sheriff, district attorney and election office.
The UG only controls one side of the equation, the mill levy, not the assessed values, she said.
A state law required the hearing if the UG will exceed the revenue neutral rate, she said. The UG is responsible only for the city of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County levies, not the other 11 levies in the county.
While it was mentioned that the UG’s reserves have balances in them, there have been questions about whether they can sweep those funds, she said.
Those funds are also governed by state law, and there are limits on what you can and cannot do with the money for those funds. She requested an information session about the reserve funds, every special fund they have, so that people can understand what they can be used for and not be used for, she said.
She requested a special session for information on every element that encompasses the UG’s debt. The dollar amount referencing also includes debt from the BPU, she added.
She also requested an information session on incentives on developments provided over the last decade and the performance of those incentives, she said.
Commissioner Bynum said she wanted to strive for a level of tax relief in a way the UG Commission could provide it, with the mill levy, and looking for cost-cutting measures. “I want to make sure we are doing that with data,” she said.
Commissioner Brian McKiernan said it is true the UG could bring in more money next year than this year, and the price the UG is paying for labor, goods and services is going up by a substantial amount.
He said he believes UG employees are “busting their butts” to provide the services citizens want, and unless and until he is shown otherwise, he hesitates to make cuts where there are so many unmet needs. They heard about needs for policing, code enforcement, public works, parks and other services, he said.
He has said in the past that for every dollar of inefficiencies they would uncover, they also would find $2 in real but unmet needs that should be funded for citizens. “I stand by that statement because I have not been shown otherwise.”
Commissioner McKiernan said he would consider mill rate reductions on the city and county side of the budget, with the understanding that it might result in reduction of services provided to the citizens. Additionally, he will consider mill rate reductions greater than the 2 mills discussed up to this point, but he would not vote for the revenue neutral rate.
Commissoner Ramirez said they all want efficiencies and cost measures, but the commissioners’ authority is very small under the charter. It is the administrator’s authority to look for those efficiencies under the direction of commissioners, he said. He said he would be happy to work with other commissioners on a resolution that is a directive to the administrator to find cost measures throughout the UG.
Commissioner Andrew Davis said he recognized the heavy burden of taxes, and he personally has already seen an increase in valuation on his home. He agreed they need to find a solution for seniors and disabled persons.
He also said he understands the needs in the community for programs and services. People deserve better services and amenities, he said. It’s his job to try to balance the two things.
He echoed Commissioners Townsend and Bynum on getting some concrete answers.
He mentioned other jurisdictions, and said, “If we’re really going to talk about relief, we have to hold everyone’s feet to the fire.”
The UG also needs to look at other ways to increase its revenues without increasing its taxes, he said. Economic development efforts such as the World Cup coming here and the new Homefield development may increase revenues. He suggested an increase in the transient guest sales tax.
They have to have conversations about not just expenses, but also revenues, he said.
The state has a bill on a property tax rebate program for senior citizens, he said.
He said he supports the 2 mill reduction, and they need to have a conversation with the appraiser about valuations. Economic development is where they can get true property tax relief, he said.
Commissioner Davis also said the UG needs to decide what they need to do. If they are going to own the warming shelter, they need to do that, he said. If they’re going to partner, they need to do that, he added.
“I’m for us being a compassionate community and not leaving people out in the cold to die,” he said.
There is almost $300,000 dedicated to the Reardon Center in the budget, and perhaps that money can be used in solving homelessness, he said.
Mayor’s comments
Mayor Garner said while he doesn’t have a vote unless there’s a tie, it hurts him to hear the pain he heard when he campaigned to be mayor, the same complaints of high taxes, high BPU PILOT, how it affects seniors and working families, single parents working two to three jobs with no money there to make ends meet.
“We’ve slowly been taxing – you’ve heard that tonight – our residents into poverty and residents out of the community,” he said.
He said he agrees that they need to invest in the unhoused population, but there’s a balance to that. When people can’t afford to stay in their homes and are being pushed out into the street, those things need to be looked at, he said.
“We need to start working on behalf of these people,” he said. “I haven’t heard any real solutions.”
“I haven’t heard any cost-cutting measures,” he said. Yes, they may be going into a recession and people may be still struggling as costs are going up, he said. He is hearing they want to continue adding to that burden.
They have an opportunity as a governing body to tighten their belts, like he would do in his personal budget if in dire straits.
“We know we’re $1.7 billion in debt,” he said. By 2027 the balance sheet would pretty much lead them to a path to bankruptcy, they have been told.
The auditor said if they don’t change the way they do business, “or else,” he said.
The mayor supported revenue neutral because it was a way to prevent a tax increase. When valuations go up it brings in more money through the mill levy increases, he said. Instead of the UG bringing that additional money, they balance it so the taxpayers won’t have to pay additional taxes.
It would require the UG to look for ways to cut costs, tighten their belts, operate more efficiently, consolidate certain departments and look for efficiencies in government, Mayor Garner said.
He complimented the public works’ idea to hold training in-house instead of spending more money on sending employees to other cities to receive training. He said if they asked other departments for their ideas on saving money, they probably would find that.
He said he asked staff, but not received it yet, for a breakdown on contracts, how they arrived at these expenditures and estimates, and have they negotiated with vendors to make sure they are getting a good return on their dollars.
Every year the UG budget goes up, and this year it went from $420 million from the last budget to $432 million in this projected budget, and “we’ve given the farm away to a lot of big-box, multimillion corporations with incentives and BPU giveaways on the backs of working families and small businesses,” Mayor Garner said. “I hate to say it, but that has to stop. We’ve got to broaden our tax base by investing in the disinvested areas and bringing the type of residentials and roof tops and small businesses to expand our tax base. We’ve got to put a pressure point on this tax burden.”
He said he agreed with Commissioner Burroughs that it could be done responsibly.
Mayor Garner said he’s heard some say they don’t have time this year to do it, but he’s talked to a lot of folks who don’t have time and there is no time for this commission to get it together next year and wait until next year.
Hard decisions have to be made by the UG because of economic conditions and dire straits, he said.
“We can’t keep doing business this way because this town is going to become bankrupt,” Mayor Garner said.
It’s the same scenario he saw in 1987 when he was laid off, he said. Crime went up, and residents left the city because of high taxes and lack of services. As a result of less income, employees had to be laid off, he said.
He said he didn’t see $420 million worth of anything in the current budget. He sees crumbling infrastructure, roads and bridges that need work, two bridges out, vacant lots with high weeds, potholes everywhere, shortage of staff, residents who say customer service is lacking.
“I think we can do better with our money. We’ve got to demand better. There has to be better accountability,” Mayor Garner said.
Looking at middle management and above, the UG is top-heavy, he said.
But changes will require community support, he added.
“When this commission makes those hard decisions, you’re going to have to support those hard decisions this commission makes,” he said.
They need the community to determine the things they can’t live without, the essential things, and what are the things they can live without until they stabilize the situation, according to the mayor.
“We can’t expect a different result if we keep doing the same things,” he said.
He said he heard the same things before – “next year, we’ll have the conversation.”
“When do we start having that conversation, we are late in this budget cycle,” he said.
“We have to do what’s right for Wyandotte County, but we can’t keep taxing our people into poverty and taxing people out of Wyandotte County,” Mayor Garner said. It also prevents people who want to do business here from locating here, he said.
To get to revenue neutral, it’s about 9 mills, and he’s hearing 2 mills, he said.
“I think it’s an insult to the average taxpayer when you’re talking about $10 a month,” he said. He challenged the commission, administration and staff to do the hard work that needs to be done.
“It’s like being sick, I know I have to take this medicine and it doesn’t taste good. But I know if I do take it and allow myself to get better, then I can get back to full health. That’s where Wyandotte County is right now,” Mayor Garner said.
He urged residents to work with their commissioners and the staff, supporting efforts to prevent tax increases.
To see more details from this meeting, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qurFN1ZG3WM.