Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday struggled to specify where they want to make cuts in the 2027 budget, but they agreed they want to proceed with building a new fire station and asking voters to increase a sales tax to support Lawrence Transit.

City staff members have estimated that operating the new fire station, at about a $4.5 million annual cost to the city, would likely require a 3-mill property tax rate increase.

Though commissioners voiced varying levels of disdain for that option, it was not clear where they might cut costs. However, they decided they’ll ask the public to help make that determination.

Cuts almost always go to people, City Manager Craig Owens said.

“So much of our general fund is salaries that it’s very difficult for us not to impact staffing levels,” Owens said. “And we’ve done that strategically and through early retirement incentives and some of those things.”

He asked commissioners to start thinking about where they would be willing to cut. That could be a challenge, based on their feedback Tuesday.

“I don’t know what’s still on the table for me, because I don’t want to cut roads; I don’t want to cut police; I don’t want to cut fire,” Mayor Brad Finkeldei said. “But I’m open, and I’m only one person.”

Owens said most people aren’t coming to commission meetings to ask the city to reduce services.

“Eventually, it comes to you,” Owens told commissioners. “Eventually, most all of these decisions are going to be you making some very hard decisions and confronting the community who is asking for more, not less.”

The greatest cost to the city will continue to increase next year.

The city has a compensation study underway. City commissioners agreed they want to proceed with the assumption that they will give staff members step increases plus 2.5% pay raises, though those numbers could still change.

Alley Porter, budget, strategy and performance director for the city, told commissioners the city is looking at health care costs per employee increasing to about $20,000 per year from $12,000.

Employees could also see 20% increases to their premiums, Porter said.

New fire station

Commissioners agreed they are in favor of proceeding with Fire Station 6, the new station slated for Sixth Street and Stoneridge Drive.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical staff members have said for years that the expansion is needed in order to ensure quick response times during emergencies. The department handles fire and medical calls inside and outside of city limits. Northwestern Lawrence is also poised for expansion, with the incoming Costco and nearby developments near Sixth Street and Kansas Highway 10 as well as annexation requests currently under consideration. (Read more about Station 6 in the articles at this link.)

Former LDCFM Chief Shaun Coffey, speaking to commissioners during public comment, pointed out that Station 6 was included in the city’s 2021 capital improvement plan. It was an unfunded project estimated at about $7.1 million. The new station is now estimated to cost about $13 million.

Owens told commissioners that finding the capital funding to build the station is less of a challenge than finding the ongoing funding to pay the people who will work there, maintain equipment and so on.

Station 6 is estimated to cost the city $4.5 million and the county $2.1 million — $6.6 million total — in annual operating costs going forward.

“If we are hearing from the commission that they want to look at expenditure reductions for Station 6 expansion, we would like to know that, because that is probably something that we want to build into Balancing Act to see where there is appetite for decreased service levels in other areas to fund that,” Porter said.

Commissioner Kristine Polian said she supported the expansion of Station 6, but “I want to see us try a lot of things, because I’m not interested in a mill levy increase.”

The 3-mill increase that city staff members proposed would be the city’s largest property tax increase in recent memory, if approved.

The average sale value of a home in Lawrence over the past two years is about $325,000, according to a housing study the city has in progress. The owner of a home valued at $325,000 would owe the city $1,371 in property taxes if the commission increases the tax rate to 36.674 mills in 2027, up about $112 from $1,259 in 2026. The county, school district and state also levy property taxes.

A couple of public commenters encouraged the commission to make cuts rather than increase costs for residents; a couple of others, however, said they thought an approximate $10-per-month increase in costs wouldn’t hurt most households too badly.

As one potential source of revenue, commissioners briefly discussed — as they have for a few years in a row — possibly implementing fees for false alarms. Firefighters frequently respond to calls at dorms at the University of Kansas that tend to be false alarms, for instance. The city could recoup some costs by charging for those calls.

Transit gets early green light to pursue sales tax increase

Lawrence Transit currently receives funding from a 0.2% sales tax, and city staff members want to ask voters to increase it to 0.3%. Commissioners agreed they want to continue looking at that possibility going forward.

The sales tax currently costs 4 cents per $20 spent in the city, or 20 cents per $100 spent. If voters were to approve, that would increase to 6 cents per $20, or 30 cents per $100 spent.

Finkeldei said he’d like to see more information about Lawrence Transit’s budget because the commission hasn’t had to look at it frequently since he’s been in office.

Transit Director Felice Lavergne said that wouldn’t be a problem and the department has forecasts ready to go, and they can provide ridership numbers from both before and after buses went fare-free in January 2023.

Building a downtown transit station has been delayed for an environmental review, but the city has been planning for the station for years. Lavergne said transit has grant funding to support construction, but staffing and operational costs are not covered by those grants.

She said costs are increasing, and transit is also anticipating a dip in federal funding.

“The current infrastructure bill was the highest ever — (we’re) just not expecting that to continue into the future,” she said.

If the question makes it to the ballot and voters approve, the sales tax collection would begin in April 2027. If not, the tax could sunset in 2029. However, the city’s most recent sales tax ballot question repealed the previous affordable housing sales tax that was set to sunset in 2029, doubled it as a new tax, and extended it through 2035.

Finkeldei said he might like to consider different levels of a sales tax, perhaps 0.25% or 0.275%.

Commissioners will have to approve ballot question language by Sept. 1 in order to get it on the Tuesday, Nov. 3 general election ballot.

Seeking community input: A Balancing Act to return

The city intends to open A Balancing Act, the online program city staff members use to gather community feedback to help shape the budget, from Friday, March 13 through Friday, April 10, according to the agenda.

Commissioners will ask the public to use the tool to help reduce other city services by $4.5 million in order to fund the new fire station.

Final approval of the budget will not come until September, and there will be several updates throughout the process over the next few months. The community can weigh in through public comment at those meetings.

See more coverage of the city budget at the links below and in the articles linked on this page.

Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

• Bluesky
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Lawrence city budget coverage

MORE …

Latest Lawrence news:

MORE …