WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - Tuesday morning the Wichita City Council approved its 2025-2026 budget and to increase tax property dollars in a 6-1 vote.
There are four areas the budget focuses on: crime prevention, economic growth, maintaining streets, and addressing housing insecurity. The city says this is based off of what the public says it wants to see, gathered from months of research and hearings.
Wichita's Mayor Lily Wu was the one vote against it. She says it's her job to protect Wichitans and their tax payer dollars. She says people emailed her saying they didn't want their property taxes to go up because they're already struggling with increasing prices on everything else.
She says she didn't feel comfortable voting yes because she wants to see more options than just the one proposed budget that was created.
"So we can see if we choose A we're not choosing B versus all we're given is one then the community doesn't know that we have actually made a decision over something else so it's about priorities," she said.
The council voted 6-1 to increase property tax dollars. It says if it didn't do this it would have to find more than 12 million dollars to cut in the budget which would take away money going towards core services.
"If we do not capture the full 12.3 million dollars there is not 12.3 million in cost savings in the city budget," said council member JV Johnston.
The council says balancing the budget is a balancing act. It doesn't want to make things more expensive for residents but it also wants to offer important government services like police, fire, sewage, and water.
"We have a duty up here to make sure the basic functions of government are met and that we're offering the services our community expects of us," said City Council member Dalton Glasscock.
Council members say that while safety and infrastructure is crucial, so is giving Wichitans facilities that make life better. That's another reason they decided to pass the budget saying the money will go towards both safety and quality of life.
"I know people who use the library so that they can apply for a job. For some in our community other services that we provide are essential," said council member Becky Tuttle.
The council did make a few changes to the budget before passing it. It says in doing this, it saved about three million dollars. This will help it with the budget deficit it is expecting to face in the next coming years starting in 2026.
