photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

UPDATED 2 P.M. MARCH 31

Lawrence city commissioners will receive a presentation Tuesday outlining possible cuts to a wide range of city departments — some of which may face employee reductions — to balance a projected $6.6 million hole the city’s 2026 budget is facing.

Eight departments would face cuts as part of this preliminary budget prepared by the city manager’s office, according to a presentation included in the agenda packet for commissioners.. The range of cuts faced by those departments includes approximately:

• $73,000 to $80,000 from the City Attorney’s Office, which would be an approximately 4% cut.

• $80,000 to $180,000 from the Economic Development Department, an approximately 6% to 13% cut.

• $160,000 to $550,000 from the Homeless Solutions Division, an approximately 6% to 20% cut.

• $1.5 million to $1.9 million from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, an approximately 4% to 6% cut.

• $730,000 to $1.1 million from Municipal Services and Operations, an approximately 4% to 6% cut.

• $1.2 million to $1.3 million from the Lawrence Police Department, an approximately 4% cut.

• $130,000 to $365,000 from Planning and Development Services, an approximately 2% to 6% cut.

• $1.7 million from the Parks, Recreation and Culture Department, an approximately 9.5% cut.

The city presentation also includes initial budget proposals from various departments about how they could reduce their services. The city noted several positions identified for cuts “are currently or anticipated to be vacant.” Additionally, the city has or is planning to offer early retirement incentives or create an internal hire policy in hopes of getting to the targeted level of staffing.

The Municipal Services and Operations proposed budget outlines plans for an administrative reorganization that would impact two full-time employees.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical has two initial proposals: one that would require additional revenue from the county, and another that would reduce fire-medical services with no additional county funds.

Commissioners provided city staff with initial feedback on the budget in January, when, as the Journal-World reported, commissioners directed staff to set aside certain portions of the budget — like police patrols and investigations — as untouchable for cuts, and allow the parks department to explore adding or increasing user fees to offset the cuts and keep options open for raising the mill levy.

Commissioners at that time also directed staff members to plan on setting aside $2 million in the budget to rebuild the city’s fund balance in its general operating fund. That fund balance acts like a savings account for the city to access when it faces a budget shortfall or has other unexpected expenses. Commissioners have dipped into that fund balance on multiple occasions over the last several years, and the city manager’s office have warned the account is set to dip below the amount required by city policy this year, and that the account is on pace to be depleted by 2029. At Tuesday’s meeting, the city manager’s office is asking the commission to reaffirm that it still wants $2 million to be set aside to bolster the city’s fund balance account.

The city manager’s office also is asking commissioners for feedback on whether it wants to stay the course with the city’s compensation plan for employees, which is seeking to bring city employees up to, or in some cases, keep them at levels equal to what the broader regional market is paying people in similar professions.

Employee compensation is a major part of the city’s budget in any year, and it is an item that has been growing in recent budgets. The city’s 2025 budget calls for $69.6 million in 2025, up from $67.1 million in 2024 and $62.4 million in 2023.

The city manager’s office has developed its initial ideas for budget cuts, in part, via a process involving city commissioners and members of special budget committees that were formed last year, a process the city has dubbed “A Balance Act.”

The city opened up the Balancing Act tool to the wider community from Feb. 1 to March 7, receiving a total of 637 submissions. According to the city, 71% of submissions kept property taxes the same rate while 24% increased them. The main services the public wanted to maintain included ADA compliance, facilities maintenance and street maintenance, as well as police patrols and investigations and youth and adult sports offerings from the parks department.

The next steps for the budget after Tuesday’s meeting would be on June 17, when the city presents the proposed Capital Improvement Plan, and on July 8, when the city manager presents the 2026 recommended budget proposal.

In other business, commissioners will consider setting a public hearing providing tax incentives for the University of Kansas’s Gateway Project.

As the Journal-World reported, the City Commission voted 4-1 in December to approve the application for incentives the university is requesting to help fund the project. KU is seeking $86.7 million worth of breaks — $60 million worth of state STAR bonds and two special tax areas that would generate a combined $26.7 million.

The entire $300 million project would add an upscale hotel, a mix of retail and restaurant space, more than 400 new student apartments and a 20,000-square-foot plaza in the area around 11th and Mississippi streets, as the Journal-World reported. It is the second phase of proposed re-development in that area that includes the $448 million reconstruction of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. That project, expected to be complete in August, includes a convention and conference center in the north bowl of the stadium.

The commission would vote to set May 6 as the public hearing date for establishing the proposed STAR Bond

Project District and TIF Project District. according to a city memo. The resolution is current a part of the city’s consent agenda, which is normally improved with one vote.