Some of the 2017 budget items 1,000 LJWorld.com readers listed as important in our latest survey mirrored those brought up in recent community conversations: street work, sidewalks, affordable housing, a police station, the library.

The city of Lawrence has started developing the 2017 budget, which will be passed in August, and city leaders have asked residents for help in naming priorities. There have been two public input sessions held on the matter: an online city survey and a public comment period during the May 24 City Commission meeting.

City Manager Tom Markus has said cuts in spending would be factored into next year’s budget. In 2016, the city operated at a deficit.

Word cloud comprising responses about the city's 2017 budget priorities from an LJWorld.com survey of 1,000 readers.

In our LJWorld.com survey, participants listed dozens of things they’d prioritize. Here’s a look at the results:

• People listed “schools” or “education” more than any other priority for the budget. That’s not surprising, given recent news out of the Kansas Legislature. But it should be noted the Lawrence School District levies its own taxes, separate from the city or county, and most of its budget is made up of that money plus state aid. County and local contributions make up a very small percentage. For example, according to the district’s 2015-16 budget, it received $245,023 in local dollars — separate from its tax levy — and its total budget was nearly $96 million. Of that total, the state contributed about $74 million.

• As you can see from the word cloud comprising the responses, infrastructure was another major priority. Public infrastructure is frequently named as something that should be a first concern of the city. Sidewalks were also mentioned here — an answer that could’ve been prompted by Markus’ comments in May that residents needed to take the responsibility for sidewalk repair, as city and state law requires.

• Other priorities listed ran the gamut: affordable housing, a police station, the Lawrence Public Library, parks, social services, bicycle paths, the Lawrence Community Shelter, economic development, the East Ninth Street arts corridor, public transportation and mental health. “Free ice cream” was also included in that mix, though it didn’t make the word cloud. I also omitted the “I don’t know”s and a couple other answers that could be considered offensive to our audience.

Because affordable housing initiatives have gotten some traction in Lawrence in the past year, we also included in our survey a specific question about it.

We also asked LJWorld.com readers about police body cameras — a subject of ongoing national debate. An early draft of Lawrence’s capital improvement plan set aside $278,518 to fund a police body camera project; however, that work is listed as unfunded in the most recent version of the document.

Here’s a look at those results:

• When asked what amount Lawrence should allocate to affordable housing initiatives in 2017, 44.9 percent of respondents agreed with city staff, who recommended the effort get $300,000. Slightly more than 37 percent chose the $1.5 million amount that local advocacy group Justice Matters called for. In a write-in section, others decided it should be another amount. Some people said it’s not a core function of city government and should receive nothing. Many others wrote in that the amount should be somewhere between the $1.5 million requested and the $300,000 city staff recommended. The margins of error for the results ranged from 2.2 to 3 percentage points.

• In response to the question about whether funding should be allocated in 2017 for police body cameras, nearly half (49.4 percent) of respondents answered “yes.” The remaining responses were almost split: 28.5 percent said they were “not sure” and 22.1 percent answered that body cameras should not be funded next year. The margins of error ranged from 2.4 to 3.1 percentage points.