Incumbent County Commissioner Sarah Lopez will face former Wichita City Council member Jeff Blubaugh for the county’s District 2 seat this November.
District 2 covers southwest Wichita, Haysville, Clearwater and other parts of south Sedgwick County.
Candidate responses were edited for length and clarity.
Jeff Blubaugh, a Republican, is the owner of a real estate company. He has previously served on the Wichita City Council and Goddard school board.
Sarah Lopez, a Democrat, was elected to the County Commission in 2020 in her first run for public office. Before that, she worked in information technology in the health care field.
What are your top two priorities if elected to the Sedgwick County Commission?
Jeff Blubaugh: Property tax relief and public safety are my top two priorities. On day one I will be addressing real property tax relief and a fair property tax assessment process. The property tax assessment process is broken and needs to be overhauled so the system is both equitable as well as affordable for both residential and commercial property. If you own a Commercial Property and you appeal your tax assessment value at the municipal court or Board of Tax Appeals you have a less than one percent chance to get your value reduced. County Commissioners took a similar approach as it approved a $563 million budget for next year a 6% increase in spending over the current budget. They did lower the mill levy by about one-third of a mill but to give you context that’s $4.14 a year on a $100,000 home. Total spending is still UP 6% including a 3% pay raise for County Commissioners making over $100,000 a year already.
Sarah Lopez: Taxpayers need major tax relief. To do that responsibly, functional consolidation of county and city services would reduce the cost of the public safety and infrastructure services we count on while maintaining their effectiveness. It can’t be business as usual in government. Eliminating duplication and streamlining processes lowers costs, improves the quality of services and simplifies customer service. No more figuring out who to call with an issue.
We’ve talked about the need for a regional mental health hospital for years, with Kansas ranking last nationally for mental health. I took the lead on this project and we break ground on this desperately needed Regional Mental Health Hospital next year. I’ll see this project through and build on this momentum to meet this great need.
Sedgwick County commissioners have discussed passing a sales tax that would a) offset property tax revenue, and b) fund cultural arts, recreation and cultural services. Do you support this idea? If so, why?
Jeff Blubaugh: I am not in favor of an additional sales tax as we already have a 1 cent county sales tax. We need to focus on spending tax dollars like a business and look at direct ROI (return on investment) vs overall economic impact to the entire area. Right now, you don't see many non-government subsidized recreational businesses increasing their spending. So, maybe it's not the best time to be taking on so much new tax dollar spending. Quality of life spending within Sedgwick County has grown significantly within the last 4 years with the addition of new projects and increased tax dollar contributions to nonprofit entities. With the high cost of inflation and interest rates this isn't the time to increase discretionary spending of taxpayer dollars.
Sarah Lopez: Functional consolidation will lead to a dramatically lower cost of government and significant, sustainable tax relief. I’m open to options that lower the overall tax burden on our families and businesses but worry a sales tax shifts the burden without lowering our total tax bill.
Smart investments in arts and recreation benefit our families and make us competitive with comparable cities in attracting new businesses and retaining those currently here. Sedgwick County is investing $2.5 million in the Exploration Place EP2 Project that’ll increase annual attendance from 400,000 to 1 million, economic impact from $21 million to $66 million, and local tax revenues from $1.1 million to $3.5 million. It’ll create 300 new jobs and the county will return its investment in about one year.
Expenditures, such as wages, continue to increase for the county. But some residents say they are struggling with rising property taxes, which fund county government. How would you address and balance these two issues moving forward, and would it require any more cuts to county government?
Jeff Blubaugh: We have to run the County more like a business and partner more with the cities, schools and nonprofits. I think consolidation should start first with the city of Wichita and then look on to opportunities with the other 19 cities in Sedgwick County. I think HR, Parks, maybe even more Fire Consolidation should be looked at more. I don't believe in privatization efforts that benefit the 3rd party more than the County or the City should be done. I voted against the Parking plan for Downtown Wichita because I believed this was more of a "Cash grab" for the third party then a benefit to the city.
Sarah Lopez: When I started 4 years ago, the county faced a serious staffing shortage (65% staffing levels across the board) negatively impacting public services. County services are only as good as the people who provide them, so I worked to raise pay and improve benefits for all employees, raising staffing to 90% on average today.
I’ve also expected efficiency and financial accountability to cut the mill levy property tax rate two years in a row to the lowest rate in nearly 30 years. The county budget is strong and no cuts are necessary. I have a track record of improving services while cutting taxes. I have professional experience in health care IT finding innovative solutions to improve systems and cut costs, like functional consolidation for Sedgwick County.
How can the county support the mental health workforce and address staffing shortages as the new mental health hospital becomes a reality?
Jeff Blubaugh: Several concerns were brought up about building the new Mental Health hospital so close to some of our lowest income neighborhoods in the District as well as not having the extra workforce in the area. The Southside needs more drop-in mental health resources over taking on the entire state's mental health population. I do believe staffing will be an issue and should have been analyzed more when the decision was made to Direct the Mental Health Hospital in South Wichita.
Sarah Lopez: As Vice Chair of the Governor’s Task Force responsible for guiding the Regional Mental Health Hospital project forward, I’m working to ensure the utmost safety of this brand-new, state-of-the-art facility and develop our local workforce to provide these valuable services with hundreds of high paying jobs right here in south Wichita.
We’re partnering with WSU and KU at the new Biomedical Campus and WSU Tech to build a local pipeline of mental health professionals. We’re also working with the State of Kansas to expand educational opportunities within mental health services. These collaborative efforts will allow us to staff the Regional Mental Health Hospital with more than 300 new, well-paying jobs in south Wichita on day 1 and continue growing the mental health workforce moving forward.
District 2 continues to see issues with mental health and substance use along parts of Kellogg. How can the county address this issue, especially as opioid settlement funds come available?
Jeff Blubaugh: While serving the Wichita City Council I had a lot of complaints along the West Kellogg and Broadway corridors about mental health, drugs, prostitution, and recently more violence. I think the first thing we should do is ensure communication and collaboration between WPD, The Sheriff, The Homeless Outreach Team, as well as homeless providers. In my experience there is an opportunity for stronger communication between these agencies.
Sarah Lopez: District 2 isn’t alone in facing the growing need for mental health services. Sedgwick County is expanding COMCARE Crisis alongside the new Biomedical Campus, and COMCARE is supporting Wichita’s new Multi-Agency Center (MAC). We’ve also expanded our mobile mental health teams to 24/7 services.
Collaboration is key to addressing our growing mental health needs. Sedgwick County is partnering with the City of Wichita to contract with the Steadman Group to maximize the effectiveness and impact of opioid settlement funds. We have a joint committee of county, city and community members studying an integrated care model in collaboration with behavioral health providers to reduce the stigma and increase community outreach and educational programs. The plan will be completed by the end of this year.
