UG Commission sets city’s maximum mill levy 2 mills higher

Furloughs possible, Fairfax fire station could be closed

Final vote not taken yet on budget

The Unified Government Commission set the maximum mill levy at the 5 p.m. Thursday, June 11, meeting.

After a lengthy discussion, the maximum mill levy for the city of Kansas City, Kansas, was set 2 mills higher than currently, at 40.398. The Wyandotte County mill levy maximum was set at 39.263, the same as the current levy. The mill levies are used to figure the property tax.

Commissioner Brian McKiernan, who made the motion, said the city mill levy was set for discussion purposes over the next few weeks. The UG budget vote will be scheduled later.

Commissioner McKiernan said the commission often sets the maximum mill levy higher, then approves a lower mill levy at the budget vote. It gives the commission flexibility in case something happens between then and the vote, he said.

The vote on setting the city’s maximum mill levy at 40.398 mills was 8-2, with Commissioners Tom Burroughs and Jim Walters voting no.

The vote on the Wyandotte County maximum mill levy passed 9-1, with Commissioner Burroughs voting no.

The maximum mill levies for the Downtown Improvement District and the Wyandotte County Library Board were set at their current rates, with no change.

Among the measures UG Administrator Doug Bach proposed were 10-day furloughs for many UG employees and some reductions or layoffs. Most employees, not including public safety, will be encouraged to take 10-day furloughs in the next six weeks.

There also might be less mowing of public rights-of-way and less snow plowing. Many open positions would not be filled.

In addition, the fire station that serves the Fairfax industrial district was proposed to be closed, with the staff moved to the new Piper fire station on Hutton Road. That was the issue that prompted UG Commissioners to propose a higher mill levy for discussion.

Fire station discussion

Several commissioners spoke in favor of allowing more time, requested by the Fairfax Industrial Association, to discuss the Fairfax fire station with commissioners.

Bach had recommended no change to the mill levies. He had also proposed closing Fairfax fire station 15 while staffing the new Piper fire station 12. Officials said at earlier meetings that the existing Quindaro fire station could also cover the Fairfax district.

While the closure of fire station 15 in the Fairfax Industrial District was presented to the commission as the solution to staffing the new Piper fire station on Hutton Road, several commissioners did not agree.

Commissioner Gayle Townsend said several commissioners expressed at an earlier meeting that they wanted to look at other options than closing the Fairfax station.

She asked to pick up the discussion later, possibly June 25, after the FIA has met with commissioners.

“I know the callout today mentions whether to fund (fire station) 15. But I actually see it from another position. 15 is still working and operable,” Commissioner Townsend said. “The question is how do we fund personnel and staff for 12 (the new Piper station).”

Commissioner Melissa Bynum agreed about the need for more time for discussion. She also was in favor of an internal UG committee being formed to discuss the situation.

Mayor David Alvey said they were at a place where they either had to have additional furloughs, additional reductions in staff, reductions in services or increase the PILOT (a UG fee on the BPU bill), or increase the mill levy.

“These are the only options available to us, there are no other resources to draw from in this regard,” he said.

Commissioner Townsend said she was just asking for at least a week, to have meetings and then come back to the administrator with recommendations.

Mayor Alvey said he did not want to create another committee to look at the issue. Commissioner Mike Kane said there needed to be meetings of those involved in the fire station issue to see if they could come up with a solution.

In order to move the issue forward, Mayor Alvey suggested there would have to be a vote to raise the mill levy.

Commissioner Townsend said she didn’t want the public to think this discussion would result in a mill levy increase. They are just asking for additional time to meet with the Fairfax group, she added.

Commissioner Townsend recalled that when they had the discussion about building the Piper fire station, it was never an issue of closing station 15 to open station 12.

At other recent meetings, officials said that the UG administrator was following the commission’s general guidelines to hold expenses to the same levels as previously.

Commissioner Tom Burroughs said that it has been stated that valuations are increasing in the future, and asked about the cost to the UG if they lose major industries.

Commissioner Angela Markley noted they had to fight hard to lower the mill levy to its level today, and didn’t have an appetite for an increase in the mill levy.

Mayor Alvey also said he didn’t have an appetite to furlough employees or lay off employees, cut street preservation and other programs.

Revenue losses and possible cuts

Some of the UG’s large revenue losses were coming from the retail sales tax. The city general fund had a projected loss of $25.9 million for 2020 and $17.7 million for 2021, according to Bach.

Bach told the UG Commission he had taken several measures and made some cuts from the budget, and there was still a shortfall of $2.5 million in 2020 and $5.6 million in 2021, with a $10 million deficit projected in 2022.

Bach said the UG has several options to deal with the loss of revenue. Some of these include using emergency reserves, deferring some expenditures, using debt instead of cash for some expenditures, reducing capital expenditures, shifting funds, postponing the sewer fund loan repayment, transferring funds from the environmental trust, reducing administrative costs, selling property, adjusting planning, neighborhood resource and public works fees and borrowing from the convention and tourism fund.

That could raise about $21.9 million in 2020, but still left them $2.5 million short. Since some of those were one-time options, it leaves them $5.6 million short in 2021, the next year, according to his report.

Bach said the UG currently has 291 vacant full-time equivalency positions. It is usually around 100, he added.

Ten days of furloughs are estimated to save the UG about $1.16 million, he said. The furloughs, he said, would exclude areas such as police, firefighters, dispatch, command staff, sanitary sewers, community development and transit.

Bach will encourage most employees to take 10-day furloughs during the next six weeks.

Bach said in areas where the UG has received federal funding, they would have to have staff continue to work. For example, a transit grant recently was announced.

Where there are negotiating units, the UG would have to negotiate furloughs with them, he said.

The UG also is looking at increasing the trash fees by 35 cents per month effective in 2021, and increasing sanitary sewer charges 5 percent in 2021, he said.

The UG staff also discussed realigning city-county administrative costs by assigning a percentage for the city and county to different offices and services. For example, currently 84 percent of the commissioners’ and mayor’s office budget funding comes from city funding, and the UG now recommends 70 percent from the city and 30 percent from the county. The percentages are being assigned based on services to the city or county.

By realigning the costs, the UG might be able to use county funding, which is considered more stable because of property taxes, to pay for some of the costs currently coming from city funding.

Federal funding and grants

Bach said Wyandotte County will receive some federal CARES Act funding through the state. The state will be issuing the funds under a formula, and the total the UG receives will be determined later, he said. The county is asked to share the funding with Kansas City, Kansas, Bonner Springs, Edwardsville and educational districts, he said.

While the actual figure has not yet been announced, the UG is guessing it will be about $40 million, according to Bach. He said they are putting together a committee on how to distribute the funding.

Federal funding through the CARES Act is not allowed to be used in all areas of the budget, but only for certain expenses, such as COVID-related expenses.

Mayor Alvey said he has reached out to the offices of Sen. Pat Roberts, Sen. Jerry Moran and Rep. Sharice Davids about federal funding. He said the funding has strict guidelines. It cannot replace lost revenues and can’t fill budget deficits, he said. He added he is talking with them to see if there can be any movement to change that.

If the federal funding was originally intended to provide liquidity, then it is not achieving it, Mayor Alvey said at Thursday night’s meeting.

Melissa Sieben, deputy county administrator, answering a question from Commissioner Melissa Bynum, said the UG has also been awarded a $4.2 million grant for transit services. This will help pay for lost revenues when the buses waived fees during COVID-19 period, and also for additional expenses to retrofit buses for the safety of drivers and passengers.

Housing and Urban Development this week added another allotment, for a total of two allotments of emergency shelter dollars, just over $2.2 million total, she said. These funds may be used for rent, utilities, sheltering needs for families displaced because of COVID-19, and other expenses, she said.

The UG also received more than $1 million in Community Development Block Grant funds during the COVID-19 crisis, she said.

For more information about the meeting, which lasted almost two hours, visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqaShdQQBnw.