Editorial: Voters have a full plate

Among several other topics, voters may be asked to weigh in on renewing various sales taxes.

Local voters still have plenty to think about in 2017. City leaders who may be planning more items for the ballot do too.

The $87 million school bond election is done, but city and school board races will take place later this year. So too may a jail expansion ballot issue, depending on discussions at the County Commission.

But a ballot issue coming out of Lawrence City Hall likely will demand voter attention. Commissioners are looking more likely to ask voters to renew three sales taxes — totaling 0.55 percent — that otherwise will expire in early 2019.

Importantly, though, voters may not be asked to approve those sales taxes in the same form that they exist today. Currently two of the sales taxes fund public transit and one funds infrastructure projects.

Commissioners are now considering converting one of the public transit taxes into a funding source for affordable housing. It is good that commissioners are considering modifying the taxes. The taxes were approved nearly 10 years ago, and it should not be assumed that the community’s needs of a decade ago are the same as today’s.

Whether using one of the taxes for affordable housing is a good idea remains to be seen. The city needs to learn more about its affordable housing environment and what experts realistically believe can be improved.

The tax is expected to produce about $1 million per year for affordable housing. Voters will need to hear at least an outline of how that money would be spent. “Fixing” affordable housing will be complicated. Simply building new units that rent for below-average rent rates likely will not be the totality of the solution. There is a difference between creating affordable housing and subsidized housing. Unless the city figures out how to improve average incomes in the community, it likely will fall short of its affordable housing goals.

But it is early in the process, and there will be time for the city to better lay out its plans. It will be critical for city officials to do so because voters may decide they are looking for affordability in another form: fewer sales taxes.