Sedgwick County commissioners have voted to adopt a budget for county operations next year that will total over $497.5 million, and commissioners also voted to exceed a tax rate that would be considered revenue neutral to support the budget.

A new state law requires local governments to vote to exceed what would be considered a revenue neutral tax rate for their annual budgets. Commissioners voted to exceed the revenue neutral rate, which would have lowered the county’s mill levy by two mills and would have cut almost 12 million out of the budget for 2023.   The county’s chief financial officer, Lindsay Poe-Rousseau, said the county is already facing a deficit of six million next year, and that will grow to 10 and a half million in 2024.

Commissioners voted to make a technical change in the mill levy to bring it down slightly, from 29.370 to 29.353 mills.  That will mean a cut of $65,000 from the budget, which will be taken out of of a county commission contingency fund.   The vote to reduce the budget was unanimous, but the vote to exceed the revenue neutral rate was 4-1, with commissioner Jim Howell voting no.

The budget will provide a general pay increase of 8 percent for county employees.   Poe-Rousseau said the increase in assessed value will go to boost salaries for county employees.  She said the county has 670 vacant positions, for a vacancy rate of 21 percent, and that will have an impact on county services.     Even with the eight percent pay increase, Poe-Rousseau said the county will still have its lowest starting pay rate of 11.72 per hour and there will be 245 positions that are below 15 dollars an hour.    County agencies have raised concerns about pay falling behind counties of similar size.  The Sheriff’s Office and other agencies have said they are losing people to jobs with higher pay.   Commission chairman David Dennis said the county is facing a huge issue with personnel, and he hopes this budget will help to resolve that.

The commission voted 4-1 to adopt the budget for next year, with Commissioner Howell voting no.

Commissioners also voted unanimously to adopt a Fire District 1 Budget of almost $23.5 million for next year.