The Unified Government Commission on Thursday night approved a $357.9 million city and county budget with a 2-mill decrease for 2018 for the city of Kansas City, Kansas.
The budget for the city and county passed 8-1. Commissioner Mike Kane voted against it.
Kane said at the Thursday night meeting he voted against it because there is a provision for “dignitary security” in the budget. That item is for the mayor and commissioners, or other dignitaries such as judges, to have personal police protection. There was about $212,000 proposed in the police budget for personal security.
Commissioner Hal Walker voted no on the 11.9 percent PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) fee the UG places on the Board of Public Utilities bill, and the measure passed, 8-1. He made a statement during the Monday night budget meeting about his opposition to it.
This year, the budget included a 2-mill decrease in the city mill levy as compared to last year. That decrease was offset by valuation increases for some residents. Last year’s budget also was a 2 mill decrease.
Commissioners Jim Walters and Hal Walker had supported an additional 2-mill decrease this year, which would have made this year’s city reduction 4 mills, but at a straw poll at a budget meeting Monday night, there were not enough votes to pass it.
The 2018 budget has a Kansas City, Kansas, mill levy of 39.875 mills and a Wyandotte County mill levy of 38.813 mills, according to UG officials. It is a combined city-county mill rate of 78.688 mills.
The mill levies on Thursday night did not change from the UG administrator’s proposed amount, and the total $357.9 million budget did not change from the administrator’s proposed total, according to UG officials.
However, during the budget workshops, some changes were made, including the addition of $1 million in debt financing in 2018 to demolish blighted structures. There are plans for another million toward demolition the following year. Those amounts do not change the budget’s bottom-line figure because it is debt-financed, according to UG officials.
Also added at the Monday night budget meeting were design funds for parks and recreation projects. Design funds of $50,000 for a Piper park, and design funds of $50,000 for recreation centers were added. Some commissioners requested design funding for recreation centers to go to the Bea Lee Center (formerly John F. Kennedy Recreation Center).
The budget also includes funding for a new county Juvenile Justice Center, a raise for UG employees, a raise for the district attorney’s office, funding for the police body camera program and fiber network, about 30 new police vehicles, a new fire station in the Piper area, nine new fire trucks and vehicles, the Leavenworth Road and Hutton Road projects, and more money for mowing.
Also approved were a 6 percent increase in the sewer service charges beginning in January 2018; a mill levy of 12.5 mills for 2018 for the Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District (the Downtown Improvement District); the library mill levy of 6.059 mills with a $2.9 million budget; and a new budget plan for the Community Development Block Grant funds.
During the budget discussions, officials said the amount of spending will increase in the 2018 budget of $357.9 million as compared to the 2017 budget of $344.2 million.
Under this 2018 budget, a resident with a $100,000 home whose valuation did not change would be expected to pay about $905 for the city and county portion of the property tax, as compared to $925 the previous year. However, this decrease might be offset because some homes’ valuations have increased this year with an increase in the real estate market, according to officials.