photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall

The city manager’s office says it’s time for mid-year budget cuts at Lawrence City Hall. Fire and medical, parks and recreation, and sidewalk repair are among the cuts proposed, and that would be after the city dips into about $3 million of its rainy day funds.

The cuts — which still must be approved by the City Commission — are being proposed because the city’s finance department now believes the city won’t meet its revenue projections in 2024, especially since sales tax revenues have been coming in less than expected.

According to a city memo, the city will fall short of the projected revenue, which will mean a $6 million deficit for the current budget year.

To cover those costs, the finance department is proposing to reduce funding through cuts to certain departments for this year by $2.7 million. Along with that, the city plans to transfer an additional $1.26 million from other sources into the general fund. The city plans to use $2 million in the general fund balance — a type of savings account — to cover the rest of the deficit.

Proposed budget cuts include:

$525,000 in cuts from the Parks and Recreation Department

$177,000 from Planning and Development Services

$500,108 from the city’s portion of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical

$1,088,000 from Municipal Services and Operations

$410,000 from Lawrence Police Department

Alley Porter, the budget manager for the city’s finance department, said the departments worked collaboratively with the finance department to work on finding the cuts to help with the budget situation.

“When faced with the reality of lower than anticipated revenue projections and the necessity for reductions, all departments rose to the challenge to find solutions while still delivering on the City’s core promises of levels of service,” Porter said.

Some of the cuts for this year’s budget mirror other cuts included in the initial 2025 budget proposal, which featured cuts to the Parks and Recreation Department and to LDCFM. The Parks and Recreation Department would find savings from eliminating vacant positions along with eliminating parts of a sidewalk and parking lot repair project.

Cuts to LDCFM for the rest of the year would reduce repairs and maintenance of equipment; reduce education, training, tuition, travel and credentialing and reduce one staff vehicle. Back in July, multiple firefighters spoke against proposed staffing changes set in the 2025 budget proposal during public comment at a City Commission meeting.

Cuts to the Municipal Services department — which encompasses the city’s public works and utility divisions — are the largest, and include eliminating vacant positions in some of the department’s divisions, reducing vehicle maintenance and cutting funding to the alley rehab and sidewalk improvement program.

Along with the cuts, Porter said the city is transferring money from some reserves of special funds to help cover some of the projects. A total of $1,265,000 will be taken from special funds to help relieve the general fund.

For example, the city will move money that was marked under its Vehicles & Equipment Replacement fund to the general fund to cover certain vehicle projects. Porter said using the funds that way will be a one-time measure.

City commissioners will be presented with the plan at their meeting on Tuesday. Commissioners, however, are not yet being asked to approve the measures. The budget cuts and fund transfers are scheduled to be up for approval at the Aug. 20 City Commission meeting.