The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas voted to pass a revenue-neutral budget on Thursday night that cut $12 million from city services.
The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department, fire department and Wyandotte County Sheriff all saw millions of dollars in cuts.
The parks and recreation, public works and community services departments also saw nearly $2 million in reductions combined.
Unified Government commissioners and Mayor Tyrone Garner all expressed distaste for the reductions, but said they were necessary to pass a fiscally responsible budget.
KCUR's original story continues below.
Since the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas commission decided in June to go revenue neutral — to freeze property taxes for 2025 — it has heard and discussed a lot of numbers. But there is one guiding all its decisions: $472 million.
“You don’t have any more money to play with,” County Administrator David Johnston warned commissioners when he presented the draft budget two weeks ago.
Thursday evening the commission must pass the budget. A process that usually takes months was compressed into a few weeks when the Unified Government decided to go revenue neutral, a timeline driven by state law.
“It may not be great for everybody but it’s good enough to get us to where we need to be moving forward,” said Mayor/CEO Tyrone Garner before the commission heard from the public Tuesday night.
The revenue neutral decision meant the Unified Government created a $12 million budget hole for itself. The biggest chunk of money goes to public safety. About 43% of the budget pays for the Kansas City, Kansas, police and fire departments and the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office.
That’s where most of the belt-tightening will happen. The proposed budget calls for about $4.5 million in cuts to those three agencies. Each agency said the savings would come from less overtime, but no other specific public safety cuts were discussed.
The Sheriff’s Office includes the county detention center, where the inmate population has been rising and the cost of food and health care is contractually going up, according to Sheriff Daniel Soptic. He argued at a budget workshop last week that he simply can’t absorb any cuts.
“It creates a safety and security issue for the facility, a safety and security issue for my staff,” he said. Going into Thursday’s meeting, Unified Government officials said they were still negotiating with Soptic.
Some offices, however, are seeing small increases to their budgets.
The district attorney is getting a $120,000 increase to cover the continuing project to digitize court documents connected to the investigation of former KCKPD detective Roger Golubski. The Unified Government is also investing a little more money in cyber security.
The one bit of good news is that the Commission decided that there would be no layoffs and all Unified Government employees would get cost-of-living raises. However, 41 open positions will remain unfilled.
How did we get here?
The Unified Government finds itself in this situation after years of mismanagement of county finances.
In the past, commissioners dipped into reserves to balance the budget. Johnston said that has to stop — the Unified Government must reset the way it has been run for decades.
“Do you want the state to reorganize this government?” he asked. To that end, the proposed budget starts the Unified Government on a path to having at least a 25% reserve fund and also reduces how much it spends on debt service. Currently, 44% of the budget goes towards interest payments. Johnston said it should be half that.
Even if the government can achieve those fixes, the future budget picture is bleak. Assuming the Unified Government allows a four percent property tax growth in 2026, along with other revenue growth, the county and city are looking at a combined $6.2 million budget shortfall, according to a presentation to commissioners. If the commission decides to stay revenue neutral, that gap balloons to almost $10 million.
Just because the Unified Government froze property taxes that doesn’t mean people’s tax bill will actually decrease. None of the school districts in Wyandotte County went revenue neutral. Neither did Edwardsville or Bonner Springs. Those budgets will be finalized in the coming weeks.
Tough choices for government leaders
Commissioners voted unanimously in June to order a revenue neutral budget after hearing from residents that property taxes were punishing many homeowners.
But the fight over where to make cuts has caused some commissioners to have second thoughts.
“We’re making departments fight for the finite resources we have,” said Commissioner Christian Ramirez. “That’s not right.”
Residents have been pleading with officials not to cut neighborhood services. Almost everyone at a budget hearing Tuesday night asked the commission to avoid cutting funding to the eight Neighborhood Business Revitalization Organizations spread across Kansas City, Kansas. Those eight non-profits contract with the UG to provide everything from crime prevention to minor home repair.
“They have helped our community so much when we were in dire need of services,” Sylvia King told commissioners. Without those city-funded organizations her neighborhood would “look like a jungle,” she said. “As you know, there’s not a lot of money in our area. Please do not cut this. If you do, our neighborhoods will go downhill.”
Kansas City, Kansas, resident John Bailey said the Neighborhood Business Revitalization Organizations “encourages positive projects and volunteerism that ends up in positive results."
Some commissioners directed Unified Government staff to try and find more money for the Neighborhood Business Revitalization Organizations before tonight’s final budget vote.
Commissioner Tom Burroughs was sympathetic but said they must make tough choices. “I just hate pitting one organization against another,” Burroughs said. “I’m not here to kick the can down the road any longer.” Everyone, he said, knew the pain was coming.
That includes Commissioner Gayle Townsend who left the public with this thought: “Give this budget a chance to work.”
