photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence's City Hall, located at 6 E. Sixth St., shown during June 2025.

Although Lawrence residents will see a flat mill levy in the 2026 proposed budget from City Manager Craig Owens, the proposal features cuts of $6.4 million across the city’s departments as the city works to stabilize the budget.

The initial proposal from Owens to the City Commission is a $431 million budget across all funds, with the general fund — the city’s primary operating fund supported by property and sales tax — totaling $116.7 million. Last year’s 2025 budget totalled $518.7 million, while the general fund was $116.1 million.

The process for developing the city’s 2026 budget started in January — earlier than normal — after city staff and city commissioners felt last year’s budget was unsustainable. The city projected it would need to cut $6.6 million from its budget to get back to a sustainable level. As part of the process, it solicited feedback from commissioners, two budget committees and the general public to learn about which programs should be prioritized and which would face steeper cuts.

“Hard decisions were made to sustainably balance this budget today and into the future,” Owens wrote in a letter about the budget.

The proposed budget will see cuts to these city departments:

• $78,000 from the City Attorney’s Office, roughly a 4% cut

• $176,000 from the Economic Development Department, roughly a 13% cut

• $170,000 from the Homeless Solutions Department, roughly a 6% cut

• $1.5 million from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, roughly a 4% cut

• $1.1 million from the Municipal Services and Operations Department, roughly a 6% cut

• $1.3 million from the Lawrence Police Department, roughly a 4% cut

• $138,000 from the Planning and Development Services Department, roughly a 2% cut

• $1.8 million from the Parks, Recreation and Culture Department, roughly a 10% cut

Owens wrote the cuts are about 5% of the city’s general fund budget and “there will be noticeable service level impacts from those reductions;” however, he believes the proposed reductions will still deliver the high levels of “service in the areas the community has prioritized and resourced.”

The outlines of the cuts are similar to a budget update presented to the commission in April. This budget will also add $2 million to the city’s reserve fund, which the commission dipped into last year to ensure a lower mill levy, and continue providing employees with market-rate pay, as the Journal-World reported.

In that same meeting, Alley Porter, a budget manager with the city finance department, noted that budget update included cuts to 23 full-time positions. Many of those positions were “currently or expected to be vacant,” according to the city. Still, the city began offering voluntary early retirement packages as part of an effort to limit possible layoffs. So far 20 employees have taken the packages, as the Journal-World reported. Additionally, the city adopted an internal hiring policy to help limit vacancies.

A city presentation highlights services that would continue despite the cuts and ones that would be reduced. The Parks, Recreation and Culture department, which is facing the deepest cut, for example, would still maintain core youth, senior, sports, aquatics and community programs, but it will cut three full-time positions and multiple part-time positions; reduce hours and services at some of the rec centers and reduce maintenance for parks, trails and fields.

The PRC will also explore adding fees for entry to its recreation centers as a way to defray some of the cuts, and has previously told the Journal-World the fee program — if approved — could bring in $500,000 annually in revenue for the department. The city anticipates the PRC will present the fee plan to the City Commission during the July 15 meeting.

City commissioners won’t take any action on the budget at their Tuesday night meeting, but they will be asked to provide feedback to the city staff. One potential item that could be looked into is an increase to Lawrence’s transient guest tax ahead of the 2026 World Cup in Kansas City. The tax is a special sales tax applied to the price of hotel rooms. Owens wrote to the commission saying staff will offer options to “potentially raise this percentage and capture the anticipated one-time growth.”

After the work session Tuesday night, the commission will establish public hearings and the publication of the budget during its July 15 meeting. Formal adoption of the budget is scheduled to take place during its Sept. 16 meeting.