Allen Dinkel, City Manager
It is Budget Time. The time of the year when we set the budget for 2025. The time when we look at the “wants ” and the “needs” of the city and estimate the costs. The time when we look into the crystal ball to determine how revenue can match up with expenses. And yes, the time of the year when the local governing bodies determine how much property taxes that owners of real estate will pay.
We can all discuss what the City should spend their funds on each year. Trust me, there is a wide range of opinion as everyone has their own priorities and thoughts about what should be done. In my career in city management this has never changed and is the same in every single city. Of course, we all believe we are right, and others are wrong.
About 20 years ago State Senator Janis Lee from North Central Kansas, who represented the District I lived in would come to town to visit with the residents. One thing she always said, “if you want to cut taxes it has to be something that you use and is important to you.” The message she always conveyed was that it is easy to cut spending on something you don’t believe is important, but always remember there is someone that does and they may feel your ideas of funding are not that important.
I was not here in Junction City during the high point of the debt crisis. From what I understand there was many different thoughts on how to address the debt issue. City employees were furloughed, and salary increases in subsequent years did not get the raises as others may have. Spending had to be cut because it took most of the tax dollars to just pay the debt payments. I have been told that budget was easy as there was no money as was all was used to address debt. This also meant the City got behind on many other projects. And the road to catch back up has been long and difficult. Even though the General Obligation debt is still an issue, it is nothing in comparison to the darkest days. I do challenge this City to keep on the debt payment path as it still a bit more than it needs to be, but in about 3 more years it will be much different.
I saw a note this week about the 1% sales tax for debt service that the voters approved. This tax will end on December 31. 2030. There, however, is a great chance this can be stopped a year or 2 earlier. This sales tax can only be used for debt service. Nothing else. If this sales tax is needed for another use, the voters will have to approve. Remember all local sales taxes are voted on by the public at an election.
In the next week, we will receive the estimated assessed value for 2024. These are based on the value of your home as set by the County Appraiser as this past New Year’s Day. Now let’s not beat up on the appraiser’s office as they have to follow state standards. For residential properties that amount is multiplied by 11.5% to get the assessed value. On commercial properties they are assessed at 25%. Even though there may be some increase in values this year, I don’t see as much of an increase as there was each of the past 2 years. We know there were some houses built last year and some land annexed. This will grow the total value some.
We have talked about property taxes the last couple of weeks and as we have shown the highest taxes in the state are not in Junction City, but we are more in the middle of the pack. We hear that taxes should decrease, but in the next breath we hear of the need for the City to spend more. I have never figured out how to tax less and spend more. No one ever will.
Yes, it comes down to priorities. So far the requests for dollars for this next budget have either came in at the same level as last year or increase. Now the issue is to find the proper balance of spending. And that is where the discussion begins.