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City Council Hammers Out Future Budget Priorities

Sean Sandefur file photo

Wichita City Council members are looking to nail down some of the city's future budget priorities. It's all part of the new Comprehensive Investments Plan.

John Schlegel is director of planning for the Wichita-Sedgwick County Planning department. He recently provided an update to Mayor Jeff Longwell and to city council members.

“You’re put in a very difficult position of having to meet all of these demands from your constituents, without the resources that you would need to meet them,” Schlegel said.

These demands include a transit system that’s staring down a limited budget and future declines in service, hundreds of residential streets in need of repair, and the continued expansion of Kellogg.

The Wichita-Sedgwick County Planning department gathered public input on what areas should receive the most funding going forward. A steering committee comprised of government officials and business leaders was also asked to weigh in. Street improvements were considered “high priority,” but both transit and Kellogg expansion received only “low-middle” priority. 

That surprised Mayor Longwell and a number of City Council members, including Janet Miller, who said that’s the opinion of a select few.

“Much of our public engagement was largely with people who, I suspect, don’t use transit,” Miller said.

She added that the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Organization had recently conducted community surveys and that transit consistently ranked very high in importance.

The city has previously sought public input about Wichita’s needs, and the results echo what city council members were told Tuesday morning. Last year's ACT ICT community engagement surveys ranked street improvements second only to finding a long-term water supply.

Improvements to Wichita’s transit system were ranked 7th—Kellogg expansion ranked 9th. 

According to city leaders, these surveys were the basis of a sales tax that was soundly defeated in last year's election. If approved, the added revenue would have addressed long-term drought protection, residential street improvements, Wichita Transit's budget gap and job creation.

When arguments were made by City Council members on Tuesday concerning the importance of transit, Planning Director John Schlegel said amendments were to be expected.

“That’s why we’re having this discussion,” he said. “We want this to reflect (the City Council’s) priorities as much as possible.” 

The Comprehensive Investments Plan is meant to steer policymaking for both Wichita and Sedgwick County for the next 20 years. 

The city council will make final decisions about budget priorities at a later meeting.