Updated 5 p.m. Jan. 14:
The special election on a proposed citywide sales tax will go ahead as planned in Wichita on March 3.
A last-minute attempt to delay the ballot question until the August primary election failed 5-2 during a Wednesday special meeting called by Mayor Lily Wu.
Wu and council member Mike Hoheisel voted in favor of the delay.
“I always have said it's important for us to engage our community," Wu said. “And when there's new information that is presented to a council, I believe it's prudent for us to pause or have a discussion — as we've done today.”
Wu said she was motivated to call the special meeting after Sedgwick County and city officials learned late last week that tens of thousands of voters would need to use alternative voting sites during the March election.
The move will impact voters who typically use 11 voting sites. It will bring the total cost of the election to $170,000.
Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Laura Rainwater said the relocation and cost issues were isolated to special election dates. The county secures polling sites more than a year in advance, and general election costs are split between all voting communities in the county.
Despite concerns about the additional cost and impact to nearly 26,000 voters, the majority of the city council members remained steadfast in their decision to go ahead with the March 3 date.
“Over the years, I have consistently said we can't change the rules in the middle of the game,” said council member Becky Tuttle. “And I feel like today, having a delay in this, is changing the rules in the middle of the game for both parties — for the vote yes side and the vote no side.
Nearly two dozen residents came out to the noon special meeting to share their perspective with the council.
Some urged council members to go forward with the vote in order to direct sales tax revenue to specific projects. The majority reiterated concerns over the timeline for the vote, the impact to District 1 voters and a lack of specifics around projects that will receive tax revenue if the ballot measure passes.
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The special meeting was 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 state would begin collecting the new sales tax in July and distribute the first allotment of tax dollars in September. That money would then be set aside into the different project funds and be available for Second Light to use.
City staff reached out to 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 wanted to use a Tuesday city council 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 attempted to call a special meeting through a council vote Tuesday. That motion failed, and Wu opted to use her mayoral powers to override her council colleagues and call a special meeting anyway.
“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 have required 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 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.”
