Local arts and cultural organizations say they’re concerned about how proposed budget cuts from Sedgwick County may impact their operations.
On Wednesday, the county proposed $1 million in budget cuts to arts and culture organizations in the 2025 budget as part of a measure to reduce government expenses. The county is simultaneously seeking to prevent a forecasted budget deficit and reduce its mill levy, one of the determinants of residential property taxes.
Nonprofits including Exploration Place, the Sedgwick County Zoo and The Kansas African American Museum may face thousands of dollars in reduced funding. County staff said they limited funding cuts to no more than 10% per organization.
“We went in and tried to give everybody just a small cut, not to be devastating or end programs,” said county manager Tom Stolz.
“I surely did not like going into culture and arts and cutting — recommending cutting,” he added during the commission meeting.
County staff recommended a $220,140 cut to Exploration Place, a local science museum, in 2025. The museum received about $2.2 million from the county in 2024.
“This proposed funding cut is concerning,” wrote Patrick Goebel, chairman of the Exploration Place Board of Trustees, in an email to KMUW. “Exploration Place has made significant future plans based on the stability provided by a five-year funding agreement with Sedgwick County, covering the years 2023-2027. We will be urgently seeking conversations with the County Commissioners to discuss this issue."
The proposed 2025 budget also recommended a cut of $82,548 for the Sedgwick County Extension Council, which provides agricultural education and services. That reduction represents about 8% of the organization’s annual budget, according to director Jennifer Brantley.
Brantley said the organization will likely be able to weather the year by drawing from savings and its foundation. But she worries that reduced funding could become the new normal.
“If it keeps happening, we're going to have to look at, you know, our staff and our programming abilities,” Brantley said.
But county manager Tom Stolz said coming future cuts may be inevitable, as the commission has encouraged the county to focus on core services like public safety and infrastructure.
“If the commission continues with a statement that we want to get back to core services, we will be reviewing this every year,” Stolz said. “So this is year one.”
County commissioners say they want to bring down the mill levy as residents face an increasing property tax burden. And several say they want arts, culture and recreation programs to be funded with sales taxes instead of property taxes in the future.
“Culture and rec is something that really fits nicely with sales tax, for lots of reasons,” said commissioner Jim Howell. “When the economy is doing well and people want to go out and spend money on things, they would support those community type things. I think property taxes ought to be reserved for things like public safety, infrastructure, human services.”
Commissioner Ryan Baty agreed and said he would write a letter to the leaders of all 20 cities in Sedgwick County to talk about a potential sales tax to fund quality of life investments.
“We can’t say out of one side of our mouth that we want to attract and retain our people here in this community, and in the other side of our mouth say quality of life doesn’t matter,” Baty said.
“Any of these cuts represented in the culture and recreation (programs) is not a statement from us saying that these things don’t matter and quality of life doesn’t matter. It’s a statement saying we’re too dependent on property taxes and we’ve got to develop a plan to get us off the dependency.”
Organizations facing budget cuts, though, are focused on what the proposed funding reductions could mean for them. The county recommended a $9,000 cut to the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.
“The Historical Museum is appreciative of the public funding received through county tax dollars,” wrote museum director Eric Cale in an email to KMUW. “It has funded excellence for decades and uniquely provided services to the community and its visitors.
“The decrease in this funding is most difficult to replace because it is strictly for operational use. We are confident that the County will work to seek a means to reinstate this valuable support as soon as possible.”
The county will vote on its final 2025 budget on August 21st.
