Back in 1997, Dodge City/Ford County residents supported a half-cent “Why Not Dodge?” sales tax to fund four specific projects. One of those was the construction of an outdoor motorsports facility. Dirt track racers enthusiastically supported this and expected to see a new dirt track, only to have someone step in later and suggest a paved race track – one the locals wouldn’t be able to run their cars on at the time. Voters felt they’d been had when a paved track was built in 2000, but a few years later the facility returned to its roots and popularity as a dirt venue.
We’re reminded of this because Great Bend residents voted for three new sales taxes last November and now they aren’t sure they’re getting what they voted for. One was a permanent .2% sales tax “for the purposes of financing the operations of the city’s police and fire departments.”
If the Great Bend City Council chooses something other than joining the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System’s Kansas Police and Fire pension plan program, many people who voted for that .2% sales tax increase last November will accuse the council of “bait and switch” tactics. This is not entirely fair, because council members made it clear from the start that they weren’t united on the best way to improve retirement plans for first responders. Still, when the voters supported the tax, what else were they to expect? They knew the switch to KP&F wouldn’t happen if the sale tax didn’t pass.
Three new sales taxes for Great Bend were approved and will go into effect in April. One was a 20-year .1% sales tax to build a new police station. With that tax, we’re getting pretty much what we thought we voted for (or against). Also approved was a permanent .15% sales tax for “Quality of Life purposes, improvements and initiatives.” Nothing specific was suggested.
Back to the pension issue, council members didn’t have a plan when they asked for the sales tax. They knew first responders felt the KPERS option was best but realized it might require a property tax increase after a few years.
City Administrator Kendal Francis said all three taxes are considered “general” sales taxes that could be used for property tax relief.
“That allows us, should we choose to do so, to use that money for whatever purpose,” he said last August. “However, we know these monies will be used for the stated purposes.”
Since the purposes “stated” were pretty vague, no one can say they didn’t get what they voted for. Even if they didn’t.
