As City of Lawrence staff members look to make about $4.5 million in budget cuts, they have reopened an annual online program that allows residents to give their feedback on how the budget should be shaped, and they’ve launched an online survey.
This year, city staff members have recommended a property tax rate increase of 3 mills, which would be the largest increase in recent memory.
The city and Douglas County are planning to build a new fire station at Sixth Street and Stoneridge Drive; read more about that in this article and articles at this link. 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.
Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday struggled to point to where they’d like to make cuts in the budget to cover that cost, but they said they do support building the new fire station.
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They opted to ask the community to help find where cuts should be made.
The city has used A Balancing Act for a few years now to gather feedback from community members. Residents can suggest hypothetical changes in services levels to increase or decrease city spending.
A Balancing Act opened Friday and will remain open through Friday, April 10, at this link: lawrenceks.abalancingact.com/preliminary-2027
This year, the program allows residents to write in their own suggestions and estimate their costs.
The city also launched an online survey to gather community feedback about the budget and the city’s tentative plans to cover the $4.5 million to operate Fire Station 6 and about recreation center membership fees. That’s available at this link.
See more city budget coverage in the articles linked below.
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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.
Lawrence city budget coverage
Lawrence’s Balancing Act returns to gather residents’ feedback on budget
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
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