A new round of cuts from Lawrence City Hall are being proposed just hours before commissioners meet this evening to approve a key part of the 2012 budget.
At stake may be whether city commissioners move forward with a new West Lawrence recreation center, purchase and rehabilitation of the Santa Fe Depot in East Lawrence, and future replacement of aging fire engines.
About 3 p.m. today, City Manager David Corliss released a new list of ways that the city could avoid a major property tax rate increase in 2012. Corliss’ original recommended budget called for an increase of 2.8 mills in the city’s property tax rate. The bulk of the increase — 1.7 mills — comes from a voter-approved expansion of the Lawrence Public Library. But the remaining increase of 1.1 mills was recommended to fund five additional police officers, and about $530,000 in compensation increases for city employees.
City commissioners at a Friday afternoon study session asked Corliss to look for ways to fund the pay raises and additional police officers without such a large increase in the mill levy. Under Corliss’ latest proposal, the mill levy increase for 2012 would be 1.9 mills instead of the 2.8 mills originally envisioned.
But in a memo, city leaders are warning that the cuts would have consequences. Among the cuts are:
• A permanent $200,000 reduction in parks and recreation funding. The memo says the cut would “substantially limit the ability of the Parks and Recreation Department and the city as a whole to take on new projects.” Projects that would be “difficult to sustain” include new recreation centers, new parks and trails, and the city’s acquisition of the Santa Fe Depot in East Lawrence. The city previously had agreed to participate in funding architectural work for the station. According to the memo, the city would not “be able to participate further nor seek ownership in the future.” The city also has been in discussion with Kansas University Coach Bill Self’s foundation about a public-private partnership to build a new West Lawrence recreation center. The memo casts concerns over whether that project would be allowed to move forward.
• A $300,000 reduction in what the city spends each year to replace aging fire equipment. As part of the infrastructure sales tax voters approved in 2008, the city agreed to spend about $500,000 of sales tax money each year to purchase new fire equipment. But the latest proposal would take that $300,000 of that $500,000 for fire equipment and spend it on street maintenance, another use allowed for as part of the election. The city then could reduce the amount of property tax dollars used to maintain streets by $300,000. That would allow the property tax mill levy to fall.
Commissioners meet at 6:35 p.m. today at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets. Commissioners are scheduled to approve the maximum mill levy for 2012 budget.
Comments
notanota 1 year, 10 months ago
Just raise the taxes already.
jhawkinsf 1 year, 10 months ago
On everyone or just some people?
notanota 1 year, 10 months ago
On property. I am myself a property owner.
cheeseburger 1 year, 10 months ago
notanota (anonymous) says… Just raise the taxes already
Spoken like a true democrat!
notanota 1 year, 10 months ago
A pragmatic approach that doesn't assume we can run the government for free? No, Democrats don't seem to know what that is, either. I'm not a member of a political party.
hear_me 1 year, 10 months ago
Agreed. Although, I think we should pass on the recreation center and just update the current library.
roadwarrior 1 year, 10 months ago
no, don't.
Jstanobservation 1 year, 10 months ago
Just people who own property of course.
jhawk0097 1 year, 10 months ago
People who don't own property pay through rent, goods and services. Justanobservation.
consumer1 1 year, 10 months ago
if paying for goods and services counts as paying property taxes, then I am being double taxed? I own property and pay for goods and services plus pay property taxes that come out of my wages! your statement is rather lame!
jafs 1 year, 10 months ago
Yes, it is a form of double taxation.
As is the fact that we spend after tax income at a business, which gets taxed as income to the business, as well as sales tax.
The point is valid - where do you think that businesses get the money to pay their property taxes from?
cheeseburger 1 year, 10 months ago
How about the extra $4 mil. debt at Farmland and the new traffic signals? Don't spend what you don't have!
conservative 1 year, 10 months ago
I agree completely with not taking over the station or adding to parks a recs. Still say that financing raises for public employees by raising taxes on wage earners who aren't getting increases and whose property isn't worth what it was when they bought it is not acceptable. the voters approved the sales tax increase to INCREASE street maintenance, not to allow the city to reduce their levels of maintence. If we're going to go back on that because of budget concerns then obviously we can go back on the idea of increasing the library and skip that tax increase also.
fredthemechanic1213 1 year, 10 months ago
I completely agree.
notanota 1 year, 10 months ago
Property tax value also declines when your property value declines. You can challenge your assessment if you find that it is in error.
goodcitizen 1 year, 10 months ago
We could also not give 280K and free parking to a certain millionaire, or any other corporate welfare for that matter.
notanota 1 year, 10 months ago
I believe he's not getting the free parking anymore, but he is getting some other corporate welfare check for that building.
LogicMan 1 year, 10 months ago
Drop the raises -- be glad you have good jobs in these trying times.
And can they delay the library spending?
beatnik 1 year, 10 months ago
they say they have flexibility in deciding what to go ahead with and what to pend, don't build the parking garage, solves lots of problems for the city and the taxpayers, bet you don't hear that idea floated by the commissioners.
Eride 1 year, 10 months ago
I am a serious endurance runner and even I have to say that using tax funds to build new trails and recreation centers in this economic crisis is asinine. In better times I would be one hundred percent behind that decision but right now, when basic services like FIRE PROTECTION are not being adequately funded is not the right time to spend money on luxury items. Spend on what our city needs, not what it wants. The city has a lot of fire engines that are beyond their expected life, replacing them should be a greater concern then building recreational centers or building trails (and yes, even funding raises for every city employee).
This is an economic crisis. Just like all of us private citizens the government needs to choose what is most important.
Currahee 1 year, 10 months ago
How about you just raise it by 20 mills, increase the city sales tax by 2% and call it good until 2015?
ResQd 1 year, 10 months ago
Laughing hysterically here! I'm not surprised they don't. I don't think they have anything better to do than figure out how to screw the taxpayers in this town. Give me the value of my property and I'll move!
Currahee 1 year, 10 months ago
Why? Don't you think that everyone in who works for the City of Lawrence deserve a nice, big salary? Don't you think it's worth it because this town is so special compared to other college towns?
In all seriousness, the city brushed the late fee fiasco with the water utility like it was nothing and the guy who headed the department just went NBD! (no big deal) after all, it's ONLY $150,000 a year. You have penny taxes meant to fund temporary projects expiring and the city wants to keep them for new projects.
Goodbye Lawrence. I'm never living here again.
jafs 1 year, 10 months ago
Sell your house and leave.
The "value" of your property is what you can get for it from a buyer.
cowboy 1 year, 10 months ago
Are we really a green city or just pretenders ? Are Corliss's annual budget grenades just a smokescreen ?
Why do we pick up grass clippings every week from early spring till winter ? Could save a couple hundred thousand there
Why do we plant medians in west Lawrence then truck water to them for years ? Don't know what a 1 ton truck , gas , one or two operators cost but it aint cheap.
Why do we subsidize DTL , their landscaping , their advertising , their sprinkler systems . How many new jobs , and living wage jobs is downtown creating ?
Based on what results or economic projection , or new approach to luring companies , are we moving ahead with infrastructure and debt at the old Farmland property ? What expertise has Lawrence added into the devo group that can match "Go Topeka " . None , same ole defeatists with little expertise and fewer national connections.
How's that new pothole mogul spraying machine working out ? Half a mill for a machine that puts irregular bumps in the road.
Come on Corliss , get serious about your job and start earning the salary you collect.
OonlyBonly 1 year, 10 months ago
Not one bad point here!
BruceWayne 1 year, 10 months ago
Core-less and his multi million dollar toxic waste dump need to go.
oneeye_wilbur 1 year, 10 months ago
What about all the brick being laid on 6th street which in few years will need repaired again?
Havn't seen that pothole machine around lately. After all, it wasn't cheap going out of town to buy that brown gravel either. Some salesperson duped the city into buying it,just like DST duped the taxpayers into giving them abatement for personal propery at the old Sallie Mae. Abatement on real estate will pay off as the appraiser raises the valuations, but personal property is worthless to a company.
One has to wonder what the inventory value of city property is? Chad, there is a business story.
makief 1 year, 10 months ago
Why are we spending more money on train depots, and more rec. centers when people are striving to keep the SRS in Lawrence open? Why don't we give the SRS in Lawrence one of our closed schools or let them rent it for $1 per year so that we can help the abused children, handicapped, and the poor? We don't need 2 trash pick ups per week. We can all have our own compost pile. Cut spending, don't try to increase it. While many are out of work , seeking to keep their houses, our city is out trying to spend on recreation and pay raises for the city employees while the poor are being sent out of town in cars they don't have with phones they don't have to Topeka where they can't get to. That's great. A few more meetings might help clear their brains as to what is really needed.
notanota 1 year, 10 months ago
Lawrence doesn't control SRS as a city. That's the state. We could offer them a closed school as an office, but I have a feeling Brownie or Sidekicky would come up with an excuse why that wouldn't work out.
Why is Lawrence spending money on rec centers and depots? Because that sort of spending creates jobs, and those pay raises will also be spent on local businesses and services. Perhaps some of those jobs could go to people that otherwise would be requiring SRS.
hear_me 1 year, 10 months ago
SRS is state funded, but letting SRS rent a school building for a nominal fee is a good idea. How much was SRS paying for rent?
Alceste 1 year, 10 months ago
Collect the tax obligations of ex City Commissioner Lance Johnson who owns property; lives phat off of Gawd knows what....but doesn't pay his property taxes. I bet if that boy paid up what he owes everything would all get equal?????
http://www.dailywav.com/0201/paytaxes.wav
"Everybody has to pay taxes. Even businessmen that rob and steal and cheat from people everyday, even they have to pay taxes." —
ljwhirled 1 year, 10 months ago
We decreased the mil levy by 1.5 mil in 2006 when times were good.
Now that times are not so good, we increase it 1.1. (the 1.7 doesn't count, that was a voter approved initiative)
We should just keep it constant and sock the surpluses away in good years (or pre-pay debt).
Same goes for the feds. If we had just left the tax rates in place in 1999 instead of cutting them, we wouldn't have to watch this stupid game of chicken at the federal level.
Whew! With that solved NOW you sit back and discuss the philosophical issues of abortion, the death penalty, digital privacy, patent protection, fair use, energy policy............
kansasredlegs 1 year, 10 months ago
jafs 1 year, 10 months ago
I like the idea of keeping rates even, and saving any surpluses for when times get tough.
hear_me 1 year, 10 months ago
Is this a bad time to suggest the the Santa Fe train depot be a hub for the buses and taxis?
kernal 1 year, 10 months ago
The taxi company in Lawrence is privately owned, not city owned and we don't need a new hub for the city buses. Purchasing and maintaining the Santa Fe Depot is not a priority.
hear_me 1 year, 10 months ago
I like to use available transportation when I travel. If someone could arrive by train or bus and pick up a taxi, we could encourage more travel to and from Lawrence. The more we learn to use mass transit, the more it will be used.
The city is planning a hub for city buses in front of the library. This is my suggested alternative. It would be an intermodal hub rather than just a hub for buses. Is there something wrong with private taxis driving by the train station two times a day or having a local phone in the station?
Sigmund 1 year, 10 months ago
The General Operating Fund is the fund that accounts for most of the City’s service functions including police, fi re and medical, maintenance of parks and recreation facilities, building inspection, and code enforcement services. The General Operating Fund expenditures account for 44.1% of the total authorized budget expenditures for 2011. 2001 $73,620,038
The Library Fund finances the operation of the Lawrence Public Library. This fund represents 1.8% of the total City budget. 2011 $3,070,000
The Transportation Fund finances the operation of the public transportation system and represents 2.0% of the total City budget. 2011 $3,312,515
The Recreation Fund supports recreational programs and services. This fund receives 94.9% of its 2011 operating revenue from sources other than property taxes. The Recreation Fund represents 2.5% of the total City budget. 2011 $4,190,772 http://www.lawrenceks.org/system/files/Budget+in+Brief+2011+individual.pdf
And you seriously want taxpayers to believe you have to raise property taxes by $500,000 to pay for raise for City employees? Seriously? Either that or fire, police, and road maintenance will be cut? I hope it won't come as a big surprise that most people think you all are full of crap.
Sigmund 1 year, 10 months ago
ljwhirled (anonymous) says… "Now that times are not so good, we increase it 1.1. (the 1.7 doesn't count, that was a voter approved initiative)"
Why doesn't the 1.7% count? Taxpayers have to pay it and the City that spends it would disagree, it counts. Any property tax increases or decreases should be put on the ballot.
jafs 1 year, 10 months ago
The reason he's saying it doesn't count is that it's slated for the library project, and thus the revenue isn't available for normal city expenses.
Sigmund 1 year, 10 months ago
Waste Reduction and Recycling Specialist Position ID: IN-4071658108 Public Works Department Starting Salary: $16.95 to $25.35 Per Hour (Starting Salary Typically At Entry-Level of Pay Range)
Responsibilities: The Waste Reduction and Recycling (WRR) Specialist is responsible for performing a variety of technical and administrative tasks related to the waste reduction and recycling programs of the City of Lawrence. All WRR Specialists are cross-trained to work in all areas of the division. WRR Specialists work with program areas such as yard waste and compost programming, general recycling support, fibers recycling, hazardous waste disposal and so on. The incumbent will also provide outreach and educational activities to a variety of audiences and target groups. Under direction of the WRR Supervisor, the incumbent will coordinate assigned activities with other Public Works Department personnel, city departments/divisions and outside agencies.
Qualifications:
Equivalent to a Bachelors degree in environmental sciences, solid waste management, education, public relations, public or business administration, or a related field. Two years of experience in waste reduction and recycling program management and development. Must possess, or have the ability to obtain, a valid driver's license. The successful candidate will also pass the background check, post-offer City physical and drug screen.
BENEFITS:
Health, Dental and Life Insurance: Single premium paid by the City. Various dependent coverage levels available. Vacation: 12 days per year (Plus 2 days Personal Leave) Holidays: 9 days per year Retirement: Kansas Public Employees Retirement System http://tinyurl.com/6zxn8sm
Waste Reduction and Recycling Specialist for the City of Lawrence with a salary between $35,256/ year and $52,728/year. What is the word I am looking for .....
cheeseburger 1 year, 10 months ago
Wasteful? Ridiculous? Absurd? Unnecessary? Improper allocation of taxpayer's funds? Mismanagement?
Sigmund 1 year, 10 months ago
Ironic, that was the word, "A situation is often said to be ironic (situational irony) if the actions taken have an effect exactly opposite from what was intended. Descriptions or depictions of situational ironies, whether in fiction or in non-fiction, serve a communicative function of sharpening or highlighting certain discordant features of reality."
2002 1 year, 10 months ago
Forget raising property tax, raise sales tax by 1/2 to 1 percent and get some money from students that pay no taxes for the services provided.
lunacydetector 1 year, 10 months ago
since lawrence is so special, at every major highway entering town, make people pay a toll to visit.
LesBlevins 1 year, 10 months ago
The US-DOE announced on July 7 the offer of a conditional commitment for a $105 million loan guarantee to support the development of the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States. Project LIBERTY, sponsored by POET, LLC, will produce up to 25 million gallons of ethanol per year and will be located in Emmetsburg, Iowa. POET estimates the project will generate approximately 200 jobs during construction and 40 permanent jobs at the plant.
Project LIBERTY will use corncobs, leaves, and husks as fuel sources that do not compete with feed grains. DOE's Loan Programs Office has issued loans or loan guarantees, or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling over $38 billion to support 41 clean energy projects across the United States. ==========================
I believe my system is better than Poet’s, however if AAEC cannot get the City of Lawrence and/or Douglas County and/or KU to even give a letter of support or some consideration to AAEC’s entry into this market it isn’t Les Blevins that is not being progressive and far sighted in the interest of the residents of this area.
AAEC could either link up with Poet or another firm or go it alone if Lawrence, Douglas County, KU or the State of Kansas or another entity would agree to join AAEC in an engineering evaluation and follow on collaboration in this high potential biorefinery field. I hear Lawrence, KU, Douglas County and the State of Kansas all have at least one or more mechanical engineers on staff but none of those entities want me to show those engineers my drawings and discuss my technology with them for fear that they might recommend my project for some form of further support, and God forbid we form a public/private collaboration in alternative energy sources to spur local job growth and the local economy.
When local governments need more funds for public works they can raise taxes or increase the tax base or they can cut elsewhere.
In today’s paper; a city memo states “city leaders are warning that the (proposed) cuts would have consequences. Among the cuts are:
• A permanent $200,000 reduction in parks and recreation funding. The memo says the cut would “substantially limit the ability of the Parks and Recreation Department and the city as a whole to take on new projects.” Projects that would be “difficult to sustain” include new recreation centers, new parks and trails, and the city’s acquisition of the Santa Fe Depot in East Lawrence. The city previously had agreed to participate in funding architectural work for the station. According to the memo, the city would not “be able to participate further nor seek ownership in the future.” The city also has been in discussion with Kansas University Coach Bill Self’s foundation about a public-private partnership to build a new West Lawrence recreation center. The memo casts concerns over whether that project would be allowed to move forward.
Les Blevins
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