Sedgwick County budget proposal prioritizes public safety, cuts arts. 5 things to know

Sedgwick County’s $593.6 million budget proposal for 2025 prioritizes public safety spending and employee wages while making significant cuts to cultural, arts and recreation funding, including for the Sedgwick County Zoo and Exploration Place science museum.

The plan, laid out by County Manager Tom Stolz last week, calls for Sedgwick County to slightly lower its mill levy for a second year in a row in an attempt to ease the burden on residents by forgoing about $2.1 million in potential property tax revenue.

Public budget hearings will be held at 6 p.m. on July 31 and at 9 a.m. on Aug. 21 — the same day the commission is set to adopt the plan. Residents can also weigh in on the proposal through an online form.

Here are five takeaways from Sedgwick County’s 2025 proposed budget:

Property taxes

Property taxes are calculated “by taking a percentage of the appraised property value and multiplying that figure by the mill levy,” the county says on its website. The budget proposal calls for a mill levy rate of 29.659 for 2025, a roughly one-third mill reduction.

Because property valuations continue to rise year-over-year on most Sedgwick County properties, residents can expect to pay more in property taxes even if the county, which receives roughly a quarter of property tax revenue, lowers its mill levy.

“I hear from my constituents — those that are on fixed income, small business owners — a significant number of people are reeling because of soaring property tax increases due to property valuation increases,” Chair Ryan Baty said during Wednesday’s meeting.

He said in his assessment, the county is “too dependent” on property taxes and should consider switching to a system where sales tax revenue is used to pay for some “non-core services” instead. He plans to ask the city managers and mayors of all 20 Sedgwick County cities to meet and discuss possible reform.

“I would personally be interested in seeing a sales tax proposal to the taxpayers,” Commissioner Jim Howell said.

“Culture and rec is something that really fits nicely with sales tax for lots of reasons. 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.”

Cuts to arts, culture and recreation

In an effort to focus on “core government services,” the budget plan calls for across-the-board cuts to arts, culture and recreation spending.

The parks department, which manages Sedgwick County Park and Lake Afton Park, would see a $478,467 reduction in spending. Exploration Place would sustain a $220,140 funding cut and the Sedgwick County Zoo would have to scale back its capital improvement plan by $250,000.

The budget proposal also calls for a decrease in community programs spending, including a $9,200 cut to the Kansas African American Museum and smaller $1,000 cuts to the Wichita Riverfest and the arts council.

“What I struggle with the most is anything that we have, we’re in the middle of funding agreements that we’re already a part of,” said Sarah Lopez, the lone Democrat on the five-member commission. “I don’t know if that’s good partnership. I don’t know if that’s a good look for us to hurt relationships that have been built for the last however long.”

The proposal also calls for severing the county’s $80,000 contract with KPTS, the local PBS station, for broadcasting commission meetings.

People could still watch commission and staff meetings on YouTube, as well as the county’s website and Facebook, which Strategic Communications director Nicole Gibbs said gets “about double to triple” the viewership meetings do on KPTS.

Deficit spending

Projections at the beginning of the budget cycle showed a $4.9 million deficit in property-tax-supported funds, largely thanks to a law enforcement wage war with the city of Wichita. In January, the county transferred $4.5 million from reserves to cover 8.7% raises for Sheriff’s Office employees after Wichita police officers received pay bumps and $5,000 bonuses.

The 2025 budget plan would draw the deficit down $3.5 million by tapping the county’s investment income, which has fared exceedingly well in 2024, before eliminating the deficit in 2026.

“This does include essentially about a $1.4 or $1.5 million structural imbalance that we’re accepting by, we’re going to cover that with ending balance,” Howell said. “We call that deficit spending. That’s the only way to cover that.”

State law requires municipalities to balance their budgets every year, but CFO Lindsay Poe Rousseau said there’s some wiggle room.

“It is for one year, and that’s permissible under your policy as long as we have a plan,” she said.

Employee wage increases

Staff recruitment and retention will remain a top priority for the county in 2025. The proposed budget calls for a combined $16.7 million in wage increases for employees.

“Just a few years ago, we were a hundred and twenty-five (corrections workers) short in the jail. We were twenty or thirty short in EMS. Twenty or thirty short in 911,” Commissioner David Dennis said. “All of these are services that the public have to have.”

The recommended budget provides for a market adjustment to the EMS pay plan, as well as for corrections workers and lawyers in the district attorney’s office.

If approved, sheriff’s office employees stand to receive more wage increases in 2025, including a 2% scale adjustment for Sheriff Jeff Easter and 5% step increases for his employees.

There would also be 3% increases to the EMS and Fire District 1 pay plans and a 3% bump for 911 employees, who already received a 6% raise earlier this year.

Comcare workers and all other employees on the county’s general pay plan stand to receive a wage increase in the form of a 2% scale adjustment and a 3% general pay adjustment

If wage increases are approved, the commission will have spent roughly $64 million on compensation in the last five budget cycles, Stolz said.

New spending for emergency communications

Following heightened scrutiny of the Emergency Communications department in the aftermath of the fatal Brookhollow Apartment fire last October, Sedgwick County’s budget proposal calls for $1.9 million in new spending for 911.

At the request of Director Elora Forshee, the 2025 recommendation includes funding for 10 new positions, including six new dispatchers, which would allow the department to shift to discipline-specific dispatching rather than requiring all dispatchers to work law enforcement, EMS and fire calls.

“The thought behind this model is that, rather than being a generalist, having a specialist dispatcher who either is specialized in dispatching EMS and fire or specialized in dispatching law enforcement, and instead of trying to have everybody work every position, really allowing them to dig in and become experts within the position that they are dispatching for,” Forshee told the commission earlier this year.

The proposal also includes funding for four quality improvement specialists and $398,631 for the department to standardize its emergency fire dispatch protocols.