Eliminating police foot patrols downtown, closing the Indoor Aquatic Center during summer and paying for personnel out of funds set aside for affordable housing are three budget cut ideas among many that city staff members will present to the commission Tuesday.
Staff will also ask commissioners whether they’re committed to the city’s current pay structure, whether they support a mill levy increase to support operations of Fire Station 6, and whether they want to put a Lawrence Transit sales tax increase on city voters’ November ballots.
City staffers previously estimated that operating the new fire station slated for Sixth Street and Stoneridge Drive, at about a $4.5 million annual cost to the city, would likely require a 3-mill property tax rate increase.
A majority of commissioners in March said they wanted to avoid a large property tax rate increase but struggled to specify where they wanted to make cuts in the 2027 budget. However, they agreed they wanted to proceed with building the new fire station, and they said they wanted to keep a sales tax increase to support transit on the table for consideration.
Suggested cuts
Here are some of the potential cuts staff members are proposing for various departments, according to a presentation in the commission’s agenda:
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• Parks, Recreation and Culture: Closing the Indoor Aquatic Center in summer, limiting playground and restroom replacement, reducing maintenance and planting, and increasing program fees
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• Homeless Solutions: Reducing capacity and eliminating contracts with service providers that support housing stability and coordinated care
• Planning and Development Services: Using some funding from the affordable housing trust fund for personnel, which would mean the city has less funding to provide as grants for housing projects
• Fire Medical: Eliminating four command staff positions and one administrative position, eliminating the accreditation process and limiting public engagement and education
• Police: Eliminating 10 positions including six sworn and four nonsworn, eliminating downtown foot patrol and community service technician programs, reducing school resource officers and only having the front office open three days per week
• Municipal Services and Operations: Unfunding the neighborhood traffic management program, reducing the alley rehab program and decreasing proactive traffic signal replacements
• Internal Services: “Severe reduction” in environmental sustainability and equity and inclusion divisions, reduced citywide training and elimination of positions
• Economic Development: Scaling back marketing and reducing funding for external agency partnership agreements
Transit sales tax
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%.
Voters must approve increases to city sales taxes. The city would have until Sept. 1 to submit a ballot question if they want to ask voters to approve the sales tax increase during the Nov. 3 general election.
Commissioners in March asked for more budget information and ridership numbers to consider. A ridership chart in the meeting agenda does not include exact numbers but shows an increase to about 1 million riders in 2023, when transit buses went fare-free, up from about 775,000 the year prior. The ridership appeared to decrease to about 900,000 in 2025.
The city commission will continue budget discussions through the summer, with a final vote set for their Sept. 15 meeting.
Meeting info
City commissioners, on Tuesday, and Douglas County commissioners, on Wednesday, will also provide feedback on proposed changes to the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical funding agreement.
Lawrence city commissioners will meet starting at 4 p.m. for a series of executive sessions, but their regular meeting will begin at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, May 5 at Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.
The commission accepts written public comment emailed to [email protected] until noon the day of meetings. The commission also hears live public comment during meetings, both in person and virtually.
City commission meetings are no longer livestreamed on YouTube. In order to watch the meeting online remotely, attendees must join via Zoom at this link, which also allows participants to provide public comment virtually. Meeting recordings are uploaded to the city’s YouTube channel the next day.
See the commission’s complete meeting agenda at this link. See more coverage of the city budget at the links below and in the articles linked on this page.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Lawrence city budget coverage
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