Wichita City Council members say that if voters pass a proposed sales tax on March 3, property tax relief would come right away.
An ordinance passed by the council promises to grant Wichita homeowners a cut on their 2027 property taxes if the sales tax is enacted.
City legal staff said Wednesday that the ordinance passed by the council commits the city to reduce the mill levy by 4 mills every year of the sales tax, starting in 2027. The mill rate is the number of dollars charged in taxes for every $1,000 in assessed value.
The reduction would come after city leaders draft a budget to fund the local government each year.
Funding the cut may require up to $21 million in sales tax dollars — about 56% of the amount of sales tax city officials say they expect Wichita to collect by the end of 2026.
For the current fiscal year, the council set the mill rate at 32.3 mills. Taken along with the state’s 11.5% residential assessment rate, that means that the owner of a $200,000 home pays about $743 in city taxes.
A 4-mill cut made under the current Wichita budget would save that homeowner about $92 in city taxes.
The promise of the mill cut came just hours before the start of advance voting on a ballot question drafted by nonprofit group Wichita Forward.
Wichita city leaders have said the work to finalize an implementation plan, or “guardrails,” is intended to give voters more clarity around what will happen if the Wichita Forward proposal passes.
Wichita Forward’s blueprint
The tax proposal is the work of Wichita Forward, a nonprofit formed by local business leaders Aaron Bastian of Fidelity Bank, Ben Hutton of Hutton Corp. and Jon Rolph of Thrive Restaurant Group.
Wichita Forward came to the council in December with an ordinance in hand that outlined its sales tax plan in a ballot question and called for a March special election. The council passed that ordinance unanimously.
Residents and council members quickly began raising questions about what was left unexplained in the ballot language — like how tax dollars would be held and distributed.
City legal staff told the council no changes could be made to the ballot question once the Sedgwick County Election Office began mailing overseas and military ballots on January 17. The council could create its own policies through ordinances if the question passed, city legal staff said.
Wichita Forward’s ballot question gives the council a six-paragraph-long framework for how high the tax should be (1%), how long it should last (seven years) and what kinds of projects should receive tax dollars.
The ballot question says that, if passed, up to $250 million in sales tax will go to revitalizing Century II and upgrading the city’s convention center, $225 million to police and fire spending, $150 million to a homeless and housing services fund, $150 million to property tax relief and $75 million to a new downtown performing arts center.
The city’s plan
The plan passed by the council Tuesday takes Wichita Forward’s mandatory funding categories and prioritizes them.
A split council voted to adopt a proposal from Mayor Lily Wu to require the first $21 million sales tax to be used for property tax relief. Council members Maggie Ballard, Mike Hoheisel and Joseph Shepard voted against the move.
“Not to say property tax relief is not important. It is real,” Shepard said. “The situation regarding our unhoused neighbors is, I believe, something that should be the priority, and I think the collective community might agree.”
Support for the Second Light homelessness and multi-agency resource center, as well as concern for low-income residents and renters, was frequently mentioned by the 23 people who offered public comment.
The decision to prioritize property tax cuts had a ripple effect through a city-drafted implementation plan. City staff had developed a plan that would have prioritized funding for property tax relief, public safety capital projects and a housing fund equally, based on prior feedback from the mayor.
Sharon Dickgrafe, the city’s deputy chief attorney, told council members that “if the will of the council is that there be a 4 mill [reduction] that first year, you’re going to have to frontload property tax.”
The council passed a provision that, after funding a 2027 property tax cut, would direct the next $280 million in sales tax receipts to public safety, the housing fund and property tax relief equally. Once those areas each receive $100 million, sales tax dollars would be split between the original five categories.
City projections of sales tax show that those investment limits likely would not be hit until sometime in late 2029. That means Wichita Forward’s plans for renovations of Century II and a new downtown performing arts center would not see major sales tax dollars invested until late 2029 or early 2030.
Keean Calivir, an employee of Century II, told the council that there’s major decay inside the mid-century building and “the fact of the matter is that that building needs funding way sooner than 2029. It’s already in really bad shape.”
Resolutions passed by council also say that no sales tax dollars would be expended on a proposed downtown performing arts center until private organizers pledge or collect $50 million to match the city’s investment.
The resolution prompted disagreement from council member J.V. Johnston, who said private donors should be required to raise $75 million before the city begins spending sales tax dollars on the project.
“I will reiterate my experience as a fundraiser in this field,” Johnston said. “The last 20% is the hardest to raise, and I want to make sure they (can) raise the full $75 million.”
Mayor Wu also was the lone detractor on provisions passed by the council to establish a homelessness and housing fund.
Like the rest of the council, Wu supported an ordinance that would pull $690,000 this year and $2.75 million next year from the housing fund to cover the cost of operations at Second Light.
But Wu said she wouldn’t vote in favor of the resolution unless she received a guarantee from City Manager Dennis Marstall that the endowment fund would have at least $120 million by the end of seven years.
“I would love to state that,” Marstall said, “though that plan is dependent on interest generated on the corpus. I cannot guarantee the return on investment to get to that $120 million.”
Wu said she was adamant about that amount because she wanted to make sure that “in perpetuity, a shelter in Wichita at the Second Light facility will be able to be funded.”
Missing from the plan?
City Manager Marstall’s presentation included two program proposals. One would allow Wichita residents who qualify for the federal low-income energy assistance program — or LIEAP — to receive a yearly $55 rebate.
To qualify for LIEAP, residents have to be paying the utility costs at their residence and have a household income below 150% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that would mean the household income is below $4,019 a month.
The $55 rebate is an estimation on what a typical low-income family in Wichita may spend on food and groceries.
Local and state politicians representing Wichita are working at the Legislature to pass a bill that would allow cities to exempt food and groceries from local sales tax levies. The program presented to the council would be triggered only if that bill failed.
The second program would allow property owners who qualify for the state’s homestead refund program to receive additional property tax relief.
Seniors, veterans, caregivers and people with a disability who make less than $42,600 and own a home qualify for that program. The Wichita program would grant those that qualify property tax relief for up to a third of their state tax refund.
“I know seniors in my district, this is definitely something that they’re interested in because as everything goes up — food goes up, property taxes go up — their cost of living increases with their Social Security is not going up,” Hoheisel said.
While council member comments indicated general support for the programs, it’s unclear whether they would be enacted if the sales tax passes.
The city’s official record of the council meeting shows the programs were passed unanimously. But a recording of the meeting shows that the 7-0 vote followed a motion by Hoheisel to “adopt resolutions to establish implementation guardrails and review proposed resolutions for sales tax and property tax relief.”
City staff said they were checking to see if the council made the required vote to actually approve the tax-relief resolutions rather than just review them.
