Tag: Unified Government Commission

Also on agenda are public hearings on downtown campus plan, Mission Cliffs apartment development

Zoning for a redevelopment at The Woodlands racetrack at 97th and Leavenworth Road is on Thursday night’s Unified Government Commission meeting agenda. It will be a virtual meeting starting at 7 p.m.

Other items on the agenda include public hearings on the downtown campus redevelopment plan and on the Mission Cliffs apartment development.

The commission also is scheduled to vote on recommendations for CARES Act funding to various agencies in Wyandotte County. The county was eligible for about $37 million in funding.

Community grants from Hollywood Casino funds also are on the Thursday agenda. A total of about $492,000 will be given to local agencies.

The City Planning Commission approved the change of zone for the Woodlands area from agriculture and planned general business to limited business and general industrial district for a business park and neighborhood retail center. There is a plan for a warehouse at the site of the closed horse and dog track. The CPC vote was 7-1.

According to agenda information, the staff has received a letter in support of the warehouse project, along with individuals who appeared in support of it at the July 13 CPC meeting. Staff also received email and phone calls opposing the distribution center, along with people who appeared in opposition. Several neighbors opposed the project at a meeting held June 29. (See earlier story, https://wyandotteonline.com/neighbors-protest-proposed-business-park-at-the-woodlands/)

The UG Commission also is meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday in a remote special session meeting to hold a CARES Act review followed by a COVID-19 update.

Other items on the 7 p.m. July 30 meeting agenda include:

• 1908 S. 74th St., change of zone from single-family district to general industrial district for a contractor’s office, shop and storage yard, Rose Property Mantenance.

• 2914 S. 74th St., change of zone from single-family to agriculture district for hay and to raise bees, Reggie Kemna with Relentless LLC.

• 7540 Armstrong Ave., renewal of special use permit for a drinking establishment with live entertainment, Elevate Enterprises.

• 2824 N. 99th Terrace, renewal of home occupation special use permit for a short-term rental and AirBNB, Cristen Ryman and Kate Lynch.

• 741 S. 76th St., renewal of special use permit to keep one horse, Patricia Soto.
• 3232 Sewell Ave., renewal of special use permit for the temporary use of land to park two semi trucks, Jackson Trucking.

• 819 Southwest Blvd., renewal of a specia use permit for short-term rental – AirBNB, Jacob S. Patton.

• 2330 State Line Road, renewal of special use permit for sales of semi-trailers, All American Trailer.

• 2930 S. 44th St., special use permit for auto sales, Motor Co. LLC.

• 6135 Sloan Ave., home occupation special use permit for a personal trainer and gym, Jacob Lee.

• 452 S. 26th St., renewal of special use permit for the temporary use of land for a modular office, Luke Olenick with Sunflower Tow Service.

• 3740 N. 35th St., vacation of a street, Lorenzo Garcia.

• 16 S. 23rd St., ordinance rezoning property from single family district to two-family district.

• 7241 Kaw Drive, ordinance granting special use permit to keep stockpiles and process, crushing and sorting, concrete materials.

• 1820 N. 90th St., ordinance granting special use permit for an AirBNB.

• 6130 Kansas Ave., ordinance granting special use permit for continuation of a parking lot, outdoor storage of used, damaged and undamaged, operable and inoperable vehicles, boats and construction farm equipment and machinery for wholesale online and retail auction.

• 4520 and 4600 Parkview Ave., change of zone from single-family to agriculture district to keep barn, horses and future cattle, recommended for denial on 7-1 vote.

• 3447 N. 31st ST., special use permit to keep a horse, Fred Del Toro, recommended for denial, 6-2 vote.

• 3456 N. 31st Terrace, special use permit to keep chickens and livestock, Fred Del Toro, recommended for approval on 5-4 vote.

• 431 N. Thompson St., renewal of a special use permit for a short-term rental – AirBNB, Thomas W. Morgan III.

• 1620 S. 45th St., renewal of a special use permit for a 10-day transfer facility non-regulated, DOT hazardous materials and hazardous waste, containers to be transferred from one truck to another, no transported containers will be kept inside the building, Tradebee Environmental Services.

• 9700 Leavenworth Road, Master Plan Amendment from entertainment to business park, Shaun Cofer with Scannell Properties, at the Woodlands.

• Emergency ordinance and resolution suspending enforcement of some Chapter 27 sections and adding sections for Chapter 27.

• Ordinance amending language to clarify types of structures and review process associated with structures in Section 32-102, Chapter 32, Article III of the 2008 code of ordinances of UG.

• Ordinance directing UG attorney to start proceedings to acquire land for Lower Conner Creek Project Phase 2, located Donahoo and I-435 along Conner Creek to the Wolcott Treatment Plant. The project is for the UG’s Pump Station 50 Elimination and New Interceptor Sewer Project.

• Ordinance directing UG attorney to start legal proceedings to acquire land for the Lombardy Drive Sewer Improvement Project. It will relocate failing sewer mains that run under houses to side yards and the road at 22nd and Lombardy Drive.

• John Rios nominated to the Housing Authority by Commissioner Christian Ramirez.

• Mark Mohler renominated to the Golf Advisory Board by Commissioner Melissa Bynum.

• Jody Boeding renominated to the Wyandotte County Library Board by Commissioner Brian McKiernan.

• Joan DeMoss reappointed to the Law Enforcement Advisory Board by Commissioner McKiernan.

• Bridget Holton-Deere reappointed to UG Board of Park Commissioners by Commissioner McKiernan.

• Susannah Pauley reappointed to Board of Zoning Appeals and Kansas City, Kansas, City Planning Commission by Commissioner McKiernan.

• A resolution approving a lease purchase transaction with Motorola Solutions for in-car and body worn cameras.

• A Land Bank application from Breck Ricketts at 725 S. 4th St., Edwardsville, to use a cell tower to provide low-cost internet services to Edwardsville residents.

Those who want to make comments at the 7 p.m. July 30 UG Commission meeting, to be part of the public record, may find instructions on commenting at https://www.wycokck.org/BOC-Virtual-Meeting.aspx.

Those who want to comment are asked to contact the UG clerk’s office in advance. There is a deadline of 5 p.m. Wednesday to request to make a comment.

In addition, residents may contact UG commissioners about their concerns; information on their emails is at https://www.wycokck.org/Commissioners/Districts.aspx. The mayor’s contact information is at https://www.wycokck.org/Mayor.aspx.

The UG meetings are scheduled to be shown on UGTV cable television on Spectrum channel 2 and Google Fiber channel 141. They also will be shown on YouTube.

To connect to the 7 p.m. Zoom meeting, visit:
https://zoom.us/s/98031055856

Or join the webinar with the following methods
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Webinar ID: 980 3105 5856

To connect to the 5 p.m. July 30 meeting, visit
https://zoom.us/j/92873864882?pwd=aWhtOEtsNnBxeVdxeCt5bEowKzVBUT09
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Or iPhone one-tap :
US: +13462487799,,92873864882# or +12532158782,,92873864882#
Or Telephone:
Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
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Webinar ID: 928 7386 4882
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/atLVcYdLw

For more information about connecting or accessing the UG meetings, visit https://www.wycokck.org/BOC-Virtual-Meeting.aspx.

Commission discusses new sales tax

What was left out of Unified Government Administrator Doug Bach’s budget proposal Thursday night was funding for the existing Fairfax fire station, No. 15.

UG Commissioner Melissa Bynum separately presented alternatives for funding after Bach’s budget presentation.

The funding alternatives included drawing funds from two of the UG’s reserve funds to pay for staffing and equipping the new Piper fire station near Hutton Road and Leavenworth Road and the existing Fairfax industrial district fire station. The Piper fire station is already built and waiting for staff, while the Fairfax station is currently operating. Bach had proposed to close the Fairfax station to get enough money to pay for staffing and equipment for the Piper station.

Another alternative discussed by Commissioner Bynum, who chaired a task force discussing the issue, was to put a sales tax increase on the ballot in November.

Perhaps the most controversial item in the budget discussion so far, the Piper fire station question displayed a rift between the administration, which proposed the closing of the Fairfax fire station, and several commissioners in favor of keeping the Fairfax station open. The Fairfax Industrial Association has opposed the closing of the Fairfax fire station.

Fire station funding proposals

At Thursday night’s fire station discussion, Commissioner Bynum said she asked the mayor to allow a small group to meet and identify if there any possible opportunities for keeping the Fairfax fire station and the new Piper fire station. Both stations are in Kansas City, Kansas. A task force including the mayor, the UG administrator, Bynum, Commissioners Tom Burroughs, Angela Markley and Gayle Townsend, met with other city officials and the Local 64 IAFF president.

The UG Commission previously had approved building a new Piper fire station, and it is now ready to go into operation, Commissioner Bynum said. The proposal from the UG administration was to close the Fairfax station and provide coverage to Fairfax from the Quindaro fire station. Staff and equipment would be moved from Fairfax to the new Piper station under the administration’s proposal. The Fairfax Industrial Association has disputed the figures used in a previous UG fire study.

The goals were to get through 2020 with short-term financing, then seek longer term stable resources, and not to remove or delay other departmental priorities, Commissioner Bynum said.

According to Commissioner Bynum, the cost to staff and equip the new fire station at Piper was $900,000 for personnel, all through overtime; $0 for a pumper since they would use existing equipment; and $315,000 for personnel in the fire academy, for a total of $1.215 million.

In 2021, the cost would be $1.9 million for personnel, $65,000 for a pumper, financed with the cost for one year; and $588,000 for overtime, for a total of $2.553 million, she said.

She said the task force spent a lot of time looking at the UG’s special funds. They identified two funds where there is money available, including the Special Assets fund and the Tourism and Convention fund balance.

Commissioner Bynum said the UG could potentially borrow the funding needed for the Piper fire station from the two funds. There was $1.432 million available in the Special Assets fund and $1.172 million available in the Tourism and Convention fund.

The task force also discussed the option of a public safety sales tax initiative on the November ballot, she said. The commission may want to discuss this more in the future, she said. There would be timelines to meet for placing it on the ballot for November, she added.

The current quarter-cent public safety sales tax in place raises about $6 million annually, she said. With an additional one-eighth sales tax, it could raise about $3 million, she said. With another quarter-cent sales tax, it would be around $6 million.

If they put a sales tax on the ballot, it would probably have an expiration date of about 10 years, according to Commissioner Bynum. The funds also might be used for other public safety buildings needed in the community, including for police and fire, she said.

The UG could use the two alternatives together, the use of the reserves for 2020 and the sales tax on the November ballot.

The task force also said the UG should seek other long-term revenue streams for ongoing operations costs, she said.

Commissioner Bynum said a past Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department study listed a chart of all fire stations and stated, “maintain” next to the Fairfax station. She also stated that the Northeast Area Master Plan had a goal to keep the Fairfax fire station open. The Fairfax fire station was built around the time the new GM plant went in, and GM donated the land for the fire station.

There is also the opportunity for the Pierson Park consolidation of two fire stations to free up a fire company, she said. The UG budget contains $2.2 million to build that new fire station in the Turner area.

She said fire station funding aligned with the commission’s goal of safety, and that fire protection is in the top 10 on the community residents’ survey.

She also asked the UG to continue to seek any and all grant opportunities, and look for any CARES Act funding that could be used in the future.

“We still do have a fund balance, so if we decided it was important to keep all our fire stations operating, and we don’t like the idea of taking from these two fund balances out of these special funds, there is still a fund balance,” Commissioner Bynum said.

She asked the commission to continue talking about this and look at all opportunities before unilaterally saying the only solution to staffing a new Piper fire is to close Fairfax.

Part-time fire station idea

Commissioner Gayle Townsend then presented the “Solomon option.” She suggested that the fire crew and equipment from Fairfax could share time, equipment and personnel with the new station at Piper. Under that proposal, both stations would be part-time.

This proposal would be relatively neutral with regard to cost to the budget, she said.

She also said an alternative might be to leave a person or persons who could perform EMT services at Fairfax while the rest of the crew is transferred to Piper.

Commissioners’ response to ideas

Commissioner Angela Markley said if it is the will of the commission and community, then the task force plan is the best plan they could come up with given the budget constraints they are under.

Also, she asked commissioners to look at the big picture when they are making budget decisions. She urged commissioners to compare the items that the administrator said were not in the budget against the fire station. For example, the amount of money needed for a fire station is about the same amount that was needed not to furlough UG employees for 10 days, she said.

“Make sure in your mind that this station is more critical than any of those unfunded items, because if it’s not, then we’re not making the right decision for our community or for this commission,” Commissioner Markley said.

“I don’t think we’re going to be in a good budget position next year, either, and probably not in the year after that,” she said. It could be five years until they’re back in a good budget position, she added. If they take all the money this year, and take additional loans, then next year the money won’t be there to get a loan from, she added.

Commissioner Mike Kane said the idea of a sales tax was awesome and it worked in Kansas City, Missouri.

It’s taken three years and two months to build a Piper fire station, he said, and the study said they needed two fire stations.

“In my mind, safety is the overall priority. I think we need to push forward with Commissioner Bynum’s recommendation,” he said.

At an earlier meeting, Commissioner Kane said the UG should have applied for 100 percent federally funded firefighter positions for the new Piper fire station, but UG officials said they did not want to do that, as they then might have to pick up the cost of the positions in three years.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez said he supports Commissioner Bynum’s recommendations. What is proposed now may not be the final proposal, but allowing the conversations with the commission, the community and all those affected, will result in having a new fire station and also still protecting a very valuable part of the community in Fairfax, including the businesses there.

Commissioner Brian McKiernan said while it may appear that the closeness of the Quindaro and Fairfax stations make the coverage area redundant, there has been a lot of discussion about how the closure would put people at greater risk than they are today.

He would like to talk about whether they would be putting anyone or anything at measurable risk or greater risk by closing the Fairfax fire station.

Also, he said that there are large areas of funding should be considered across the entire community, and they should find a way to prioritize and find funding for them. For example, he mentioned fully funding the UG Health Department, so when it comes to the next pandemic, they’re better prepared to help the citizens.

He also said they should find ways to fund policies and programs that support residents who have lost jobs or suffered massive economic hardship through COVID-19. While the CARES Act may help, the residents who were treading water formerly are now drowning, he said. “Their recovery promotes our collective recovery,” he said.

That may come in the form of direct assistance or reducing taxes, he said. The economic recovery is expected to be prolonged and painful, he said.

Commissioner McKiernan also said he would support efforts that would reduce the negative impact of social determinants of health.

“There are some areas of our city that don’t even have what we are told is the minimum desired coverage, which is a 4-minute response time,” he said. He said they should consider providing coverage for those residents.

Commissioner Tom Burroughs said those needs of the community have been out there for decades, and it has been a challenge to meet all of those. But here, they were addressing a community request.

“As a public servant, we are obligated to listen to those that bring their concerns forward,” Commissioner Burroughs said.

He said it was his understanding that years ago, there was a proposal to close one of the fire stations near the University of Kansas Medical Center, and that closure was pulled out.

Currently, the commission is being asked by the Fairfax industrial district to keep the Fairfax fire station open. About 10,000 people work in the Fairfax district, where there are more than 100 businesses.

“They deserve to have the resources that they are due,” Commissioner Burroughs said.

“We have tremendous volatile liquids, volatile chemicals, processes, that it won’t take much before we have an incident,” he said. “What happens if the station on Quindaro is on call and we have an incident? Now the response time is even more.”

When it comes to public safety, he is a public safety advocate and he supports the recommendation by Commissioner Bynum, who has worked hard on this task force, Commissioner Burroughs said.

Mayor Alvey said even before the pandemic, there was data presented on coverage to continue to provide service to Fairfax, and he was not calling the data into question.

“When we want to talk about public safety, remember, we are not hiring 24 new police officers,” Mayor Alvey said. He said he notices people not stopping for stop signs, and they don’t have enough resources to enforce speed limits and traffic regulations. He’s concerned for public safety in not providing street preservation and street clearance, he said.

The number of furloughs, having to shut down operations, is not fulfilling the basic trust people have in government to be able to provide the services people need, he said.

“I’m seriously concerned that if we have an option, an opportunity to continue to provide the coverage that is needed in Fairfax, and I’m confident it does, what is proposed to us, that we need to continue with the proposal that has already been laid in front of us,” Mayor Alvey said.

There was no action taken on the Piper and Fairfax fire stations at the UG Commission meeting on Thursday night. They will be discussing it more in the future, according to commissioners.

To see the story about the UG administrator’s budget presentation on Thursday, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/ug-administrator-proposes-flat-mill-levy-rate-for-2021/.

To see an earlier story on the Fairfax fire station, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/plan-to-close-fairfax-fire-station-discussed/.

Cuts, furloughs proposed

No mill levy increase proposed, no PILOT fee increase proposed

Unified Government Administrator Doug Bach on Thursday night proposed a $380.3 million budget for 2021 that included cuts to operating expenses, reflecting a dramatic decrease in sales tax revenue for this year and next.

The UG will dip heavily into its fund balances, using those funds to offset some of the sales tax losses, according to Bach.

Furloughs have already started at the UG, with non-public safety employees required to take off 10 unpaid days.

While the mill levy stays flat under the proposed 2021 budget, residents could see a slight increase, as valuations in the county are up about 5 percent, according to officials.

“COVID-19 has had a big impact on where we’re at,” Bach said. It has had an effect on the health of residents and has restricted business operations, resulting in lost revenues and high unemployment, Bach said at the 5 p.m. UG Commission meeting June 25.

The UG experienced a loss of more than $23 million in revenues in 2020 and has estimated a loss of $18 million in revenues in 2021, he said, largely caused by the sharp drop in sales and gasoline tax collections. The drop was caused by the economy being shut down for several months in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

There is no mill levy increase for the property tax, and no PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) fee increase proposed in Bach’s budget. There are some increases to other fees, including the trash fee and sanitary sewer fee.

The administrator’s proposed budget will be discussed by the UG Commission, which could change it and then pass a final budget on July 16. The next budget workshop will be July 9. The final budget public hearing will be July 13.

Bach said the UG Commission has already had a lot of opportunity for discussion of the budget, with three workshops and a public hearing already held, and more workshops are scheduled before the final vote.

“The drivers for this year’s budget, again, was COVID and the impact on revenues,” Bach said.

Expenditures outpaced revenues, and they knew they had to reduce expenditures, he said. The sales tax loss had more of an effect on the city general fund, which relied more on sales tax, he said.

The UG is using its emergency fund balance to get through this year, and maintaining the lowest practical tax burden for residents to accomplish objectives, he added.

The 2021 budget presented Thursday is $11 million lower than the original 2020 budget, Bach said. Since then, the 2020 budget has been reduced.

Besides furloughs and using fund balances, the UG has been trying to use less cash, and has taken one-time internal fund transfers. Those transfers will have to be paid back in future years, he added.

The UG has put service delivery efficiencies in place to provide the same or higher level of service at lower cost, he said; however, they also are seeing some service reductions because they are holding almost 300 vacancies now among the staff, he said.

“We are doing our services that we laid out without any kind of mill levy increase, and taken on a dramatic decrease in sales taxes revenues for this year and next,” Bach said.

The proposed budget for 2021 is $288.7 million for the city of Kansas City, Kansas, and $91.5 million for Wyandotte County, according to the budget document. The proposed property tax rate of the city is 38.398, the same as 2020. The proposed county mill levy rate is 39.263, the same as 2020.

Bach used a community survey to look at residents’ top priorities. He also has asked commissioners about their priorities.

Although the 2021 mill levy is expected to be the same as the 2020 mill levy, the amount of revenue they produce is expected to increase by 5 percent, as valuations have gone up overall, according to Kathleen von Achen, UG chief financial officer. Wyandotte County assessed valuation was $1.29 billion in 2019; $1.36 billion in 2020; and estimated at $1.44 billion in 2021.

She said their estimates also have taken into account that property tax collections could be down due to COVID-19.

The consolidated city-county general fund is $228.18 million, according to Debbie Jonscher, deputy CFO. Sales tax only accounts for 10 percent of the revenues on the county side, she said.

Some projects still moving forward

While the focus this year has been on reducing expenses to get through the losses caused by COVID-19, there are still highlights and projects moving forward in Kansas City, Kansas, according to Bach.

The Merc grocery store project is scheduled to open in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, in July, the Boulevard Lofts project is underway, the Lanier project is scheduled to renovate the space where the Reardon Center is, the YMCA lofts project is underway and the new county juvenile center will open in a month and a half, he said.

Also, the new Turner Diagonal highway remodeling project will open up that area to new industries, the Leavenworth Road second phase improvements are taking place, and the University of Kansas Medical Center area continues to grow, Bach said.

More budget details

Reginald Lindsey, budget director, said the UG funded less in cash and more in debt for the 2021 budget. Also, he said there were no employee merit increases, there was a 7 percent increase in health insurance costs and an increase in inmate housing and medical costs.

Public safety takes up most of the city’s general fund budget, at 59 percent, followed by community services at 12 percent and public works at 11 percent.

For the county, public safety takes up 55 percent of the budget, followed by general government at 20 percent and judicial services at 11 percent.

Lindsey said the proposed 2021 budget does include some increases in fees.

The residential trash and recycling fee is proposed to increase 35 cents a month; the sanitary sewer fee will increase 5 percent in 2021; and other user fee increases would total 10 percent. Those fees, to increase in the fall of 2020, include building, right-of-way, planning, fire inspection, garage sale permits and others.

Gordon Criswell, assistant UG administrator, said the 2021 budget would fund some efforts to reduce blight, including abatement team equipment and some improved efficiencies for demolition. Not funded will be all seasonal positions including mowers and laborers for the parks. Also, a second abatement team will not be funded, he said.

For public safety, the police body camera initiative will include new civilian positions and the UG is starting to purchase the body camera equipment, he said.

The Sheriff’s Department will add five court security officers in preparation for the opening of the new juvenile center.

The Pierson Park consolidated fire station is in the 2021 budget, and there is an increase in the budget for the inmate medical contract, he said.

The 2021 budget also contained funds for a county building security x-ray machine, and there are juvenile services facility maintenance positions.

Also in the 2021 budget are the archiving and digitizing program for the district attorney’s office, as well as police patrol vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances, he said.

Not funded are 24 police officer positions, and there is a reduction in city building security, reduced public safety building maintenance funds and district court courtroom improvements, he said.

He said community health expenses in the budget included COVID-19 expenses including funds for contact tracing, personal protective equipment supplies, personnel and testing.

The UG also has budgeted for Clifton and City Park improvements through Community Development as part of the NRSA program, he said.

Criswell said a trail network will be funded out of the tourism fund and the Health Department will get a negative pressure room.

Not funded this year will be pool and spray parks, and there will be reduced funding for other recreational programs, he said.

Alan Howze, assistant UG administrator, said the small business grant loan program has been funded with $50,000 in direct grants to small businesses. Also included is $175,000 in Alt-Cap business loans that leverage $1 million for Wyandotte County businesses, he said.

Transit grant funding is being received through ATA from the CARES Act to maintain full bus operations, according to Howze.

Not funded will be economic development professional services and master planning studies, he said.

The budget includes funds for enterprise resource planning, as well as Accela software for planning and the Neighborhood Resource Center, he said. Also in the budget is a human resources diversity and inclusion study, he added.

There also is funding for COVID-19 communications, for a new director of development coordination and customer service success, and electronic plan review software.

Not funded is the strategic communications analysis implementation plan that was previously approved by the commission, he said.

The budget also includes three new positions for the Wolcott water treatment plant expansion, Howze said. Also included is sewer infrastructure maintenance, the street preservation program, the Hutton Road and Leavenworth Road intersection project, pretreatment equipment including sweepers, snow plows and spreaders, fleet vehicles and funding to improve buildings in the parks, and adding air conditioning to the community centers.

Not funded are 19 positions in the street department, he said. In addition, there is a reduction in annual street maintenance, a reduction in vehicle purchases, deferred $1.2 million in facilities funding, decreased right-of-way mowing and reduced City Hall facility improvements, he said.

Bach said there are varying levels of funding that are going to outside agencies. The agencies were scheduled to have the same level of funding this year.

For every dollar spent in taxes, about 46 percent goes to the Unified Government, while 54 percent goes to other taxing entities such as school districts, community colleges, libraries and the state of Kansas, he said.

Mill levy rate changed slightly

The mill levy rate changed slightly from 2019 to 2020, according to Commissioner Melissa Bynum.

Commissioner Bynum said that the commission didn’t vote for an increase in the mill levy that year.

The slight increase – about two-tenths of a mill – came about when some tax appeals cases were decided in court, according to von Achen. The decisions resulted in a lower valuation figure for the county.

Von Achen said that when the commissioners adopt the budget, they are adopting the dollar amount that they seek to generate through taxes. They used the June certified values from the clerk to determine that valuation, and the mill rate was set.

Then, between June and October, the valuations changed and the mill levy rate then was changed, while the dollar amount of the budget remained the same, according to von Achen.

CARES Act to provide additional revenues

The federal CARES Act could bring as much as about $37 million to the county, however, the money is restricted by federal law. It cannot be used to replace lost revenue in the UG’s budget or take the place of budgeted expenditures, Bach said. Also, it can’t be used for capital construction costs.

The federal money could pay for additional expenses the UG has taken on because of COVID, he said. Different cities in the county, schools, nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses can apply for the federal assistance, he said. The UG will place an application for the funds on its website on June 29, then review applications starting July 13, and submit a plan to the state for approval by August, he said. The money has to be spent by the end of the year.

For more budget details, the June 25 budget presentation is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L8sMIueoQQ

The 815-page UG budget document is online at https://www.wycokck.org/WycoKCK/media/Finance/Documents/Budget/2020-Amended-2021-Proposed-Budget-Unified-Government-WYCO-KCK-FINAL.pdf