Wichita Mayor Lily Wu overrode her city council colleagues Tuesday, calling a special meeting that could delay a proposed citywide sales tax election.
Wu’s announcement of the special session came less than an hour after the council voted down her request. “When residents raise serious concerns [that] the process has been rushed, lacks detail and sufficient guardrails, it’s our responsibility to slow down and ask more questions,” Wu wrote in a statement on Facebook.
The meeting is scheduled for noon Wednesday in the city council chambers. The sole item on the agenda is an ordinance that, if passed, would delay a special election on a sales tax proposal until the Aug. 5 primary election.
The special meeting is the latest development in a quickly evolving campaign for a citywide sales tax.
In December, the council unanimously voted to call a special election on a sales tax proposal from Wichita Forward. Aaron Bastian of Fidelity Bank, Ben Hutton of Hutton Construction and Jon Rolph of Thrive Restaurant Group launched the nonprofit in the fall with the intention of developing a sales tax pitch.
Their plan would levy a 1% citywide sales tax over seven years. The funds raised through that tax — which they anticipate would total around $850 million — would be directed to public safety investments, renovations and expansion of the Century II exposition hall, a new performing arts center and millions of dollars of property tax relief.
The proposal would also direct up to $150 million into an investment fund which would be used to support Second Light, the city’s homeless shelter and multi-agency center, and affordable housing projects.
It’s this last spending category that Wichita Forward said is motivating the push for a March special election specifically.
Second Light received $14 million from Wichita’s pandemic-era American Rescue Plan funds. The majority of that money went to renovate the former Park Elementary School building, but $5 million was set aside as seed money to cover the first year of operations. Those funds will run out in October, leaving the shelter to find new ways to cover a $4.5 million yearly operating budget.
Wichita Forward has said that if voters pass the ballot measure on March 3, the city could launch the sales tax in July and begin setting aside money for the homelessness investment fund.
City staff reached out to Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Laura Rainwater in mid-November to get an estimate of the cost of a special election. Rainwater and city officials decided it would be best to redirect about 530 voters who live on the outer boundaries of the city to alternative polling sites in Wichita. With those changes, the initial cost estimate for the election was $150,000.
Once Rainwater’s office received the ballot language, it began reaching out to Wichita’s more than 70 polling locations. The office learned last week that seven voting sites had other commitments or conditions that prevented them from hosting voters in March. The 26,000 voters who typically use those sites would need to vote at alternative locations. Notifying and rearranging voting locations would add $20,000 to Wichita’s bill for the election — a fact that Rainwater communicated to city officials late last week.
Wu said she was troubled by the impact to voters — the majority of which live in District 1 — and wanted to discuss delaying the election to August. The cost of a primary election would be supported by both Sedgwick County and participating communities and allow voters to use their regular voting sites.
Wu said she wanted to use Tuesday’s meeting to vote on delaying the sales tax question until August. But city officials said developments on relocating voters came too late to adjust the agenda.
The deadline to delay or cancel the election is Friday. That's when the Sedgwick County election commission would start mailing overseas ballots.
Wu opted to call for a special meeting, saying the additional cost and voter impact changed the calculus of the March election.
“That is why I'm asking for this discussion,” she said. “Because…there's still a small window of conversation that can … be had.”
City Attorney Jennifer Magaña told the council it would need to convene a special meeting to vote on any delay or cancellation of the election. Either move would require four votes to pass.
Wu’s request for a special meeting surprised several of her council colleagues. Council member Maggie Ballard said she was frustrated that “we didn’t talk about this a little bit before, because it’s a huge, significant decision to make on the fly.”
Council member J.V. Johnston said it would erode residents’ trust in government to reverse course on holding the election and said the council would be seen as “wishy-washy.”
Council member Becky Tuttle said calling the meeting on short notice was a disservice to Wichitans.
“To say I’m frustrated and baffled is like the understatement of the century,” Tuttle said. “I’m just incredibly frustrated with how this is happening. It’s not transparent and it’s not consistent, and that’s incredibly unfortunate for Wichita.”
Council members Mike Hoheisel and Joseph Shepard supported Wu’s motion Tuesday. Shepard said he was against delaying the election, but wanted to give space for public comment on the ballot question. With only three votes in support, Wu’s motion failed.
