More than a dozen social service agencies across Lawrence will receive a cut in city funding, if commissioners follow the recommendations of one of their key advisory boards.

The city’s Social Service Funding Advisory Board is recommending that 18 out of the 19 agencies it reviews receive an 8.9 percent funding cut for the 2016 budget, which will be crafted by city commissioners this summer.

Agencies that deal with mental health, affordable housing and a host of other topics that commissioners recently have been touting as areas of greater need all would receive cuts under the recommended funding plan. Whether city commissioners will deviate from the recommendations is still unclear.

“We probably will need a more thoughtful plan about how we allocate social service funding, especially as more low-income people have less money in their pockets due to the state’s decision to raise consumption taxes,” said Mayor Jeremy Farmer.

Erika Dvorske, chair of the social service advisory board, said the group did not want to recommend lower funding totals for social service agencies. But Dvorske — who also is the CEO of the local United Way — said the board doesn’t have the ability to increase the total amount of money it recommends. It only can change the amount it recommends to allocate to each agency. Dvorske said the total budget the board was given to work with was less than what the city spent on social service agencies in 2015.

The advisory board recommended an increase in the number of agencies that received funding. Dvorske said the board could not reach a consensus on how to individually adjust the funding totals for the rest of the agencies, so the board settled on an 8.9 percent across-the-board cut. Dvorske said the group didn’t feel like it had enough direction from city commissioners about which types of programs should take priority over others. She said the broad range of programs that submit applications for city funding further complicates the process.

“We have a program like Bert Nash’s homeless outreach that is providing boots on the ground, and we have programs like the Boys & Girls Club that is providing after-school care for 1,400 kids,” Dvorske said. “It is such a wide range. We’re not comparing apples and oranges. We’re comparing apples and kumquats.”

How the proposed cut in funding came about for 2016 is a bit convoluted. Last summer the social service advisory board recommended funding for approximately $515,000 in social services funding out of the city’s general fund.

That was consistent with how much funding was provided in the 2014 budget.

But during the 2015 city budget process, commissioners used their authority to increase the total amount of funding to about $550,000. It added funding for Van Go Mobile Arts and Warm Hearts of Douglas County, but did so with the statement that it was a one-time allocation that came out of a fund that the city uses as a savings account.

When City Hall staff members were preparing to provide the social service board a budget figure for its recommendations, they used the $515,000 number instead of the $540,000 that had been approved by the City Commission. Assistant City Manager Casey Toomay said the staff did not use the larger number because it included dollars that were directed by the commission to be one-time money.

The advisory board, however, included funding for both Van Go and Warm Hearts because it felt their programs met the criteria for funding. That, along with the addition funding for the GaDuGi Safe Center, caused the funding amount for all other agencies to decline.

The latest recommendation continues a trend of declining funding for social service agencies. In 2010, the city provided about $646,000 in social service funding from its general fund. That number included some funding for the Lawrence Community Shelter, which now receives funding via another process from the city. In 2015, the shelter received $100,000 in general fund money for operations. With the shelter added into the equation, general fund money allocated to social service agencies has dropped from about $646,000 in 2010 to about $615,000 as recommended in 2016. The shelter, though, has put in a request for a $50,000 increase in operational funds for 2016. That request wasn’t reviewed by the social service advisory board.

Farmer — who is the executive director of a local nonprofit that did not apply for city funding — said he’s open to having a conversation about whether the city wants to increase the amount of money it allocates to social service agencies. But he said that may be difficult given increasing costs with some of the city’s core services.

“I know we have to take care of home base first,” Farmer said. “That has to be our priority.”

Here’s a look at the funding recommendations for the agencies and how they compare with 2015 totals:

— Ballard Center: $13,210, down from $14,500

— Bert Nash Homeless Outreach: $153,208, down from $168,114

— Big Brothers Big Sisters: $17,580, down from $19,300

— Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence: $119,328, down from $130,922

— Communities in Schools: $2,280, down from $2,500

— Douglas County CASA: $22,780, down from $25,000

— Douglas County Dental Clinic: $13,670, down from $15,000

— GaDuGi SafeCenter: $8,200, unfunded in 2015

— Health Care Access: $24,410, down from $26,800

— Housing & Credit Counseling: $15,580, down from $17,100

— Lawrence Community Food Alliance: $6,830, down from $7,500

— Lawrence Farmers’ Market: $9,110, down from $10,000

— The Shelter Inc.: $29,150, down from $32,000

— Success by 6 Coalition: $25,050, down from $27,500

— TFI Family Services: $6,380, down from $7,000

— Van Go Mobile Arts: $31,890, down from $35,000

— Warm Hearts of Douglas County: $5,470, down from $6,000

— Willow Domestic Violence Center: $5,470, down from $6,000

— Willow Bus Pass program: $3,640, down from $4,000.