by James Jordan, Sumner Newscow — By a 4-2 vote, the city of Wellington passed its 2016 Budget for the coming year at its meeting Tuesday night. The budget includes a 3-mill increase in property taxes, resulting in a $34.50 increase in property tax on a $100,000 house. That also translates to $2.88 per month.

Kelly Green and Jim Valentine voted against the budget. Vince Wetta, Kip Etter, Bill Butts and Jan Korte voted in favor. Green said she is not against the increase itself, but objected to the increase being used to offset possible utility rate increases.

“This puts an extra burden on property owners and people who might want to invest in the city. I don’t like that. I would be totally for it if it were going to infrastructure,” she said. “If we need more money to operate utilities, we need to raise money from that.”

The city has been raising utility rates, and is facing the possibility of raising electric rates in the near future.

The city council has struggled with finding a way to replenish its reserves in the utility funds. Those reserves had been used in recent years to keep property taxes from going up, and as a result the city finds itself in a bind.

A consultant told them a few months ago they needed to raise taxes and utility rates to get themselves back on solid footing.

The city had not raised utility rates in a few years, and the consultant told them they were spending more to run the utilities – electric, water and sewer – than they were charging.

Council member Jan Korte said she supported the increases because the city has been taking money out of utility funds to pay for general city expenses. That is not an uncommon practice, but the consultant told them they city had gone overboard with the practice.

“This is the first step to get the city back to financial strength and to the point where we can fix things like streets,” Korte said.

The increases will raises $129,000, and that will offset some of the increases in utility rates.

Valentine said the problem is, the city does not yet know what the power charge from the Kansas Power Pool will be, and that fluctuates. Westar is also increasing rates, and because of those unknowns, he was against the increases.

Wetta said “no one is excited about voting for this budget. It is a quality of life issue. We are trying to keep the infrastructure up.”

Etter said coming in as as a newly elected council member, he did not imagine he would be voting for an increase. However, after seeing the numbers he sees no alternative.

He hopes the city will spread out the budget process more in the future. It is done in a relatively short amount of time.

“We are going to have to take these increases to make ourselves healthy again. That does not mean throughout the year, we won’t be looking for ways to save money,” he said. “We can always not spend what we have budgeted. I don’t like it but that is what we have to do today.”

Council member Bill Butts said the increase is related to quality of life issues. He noted that Wellington has amenities that some towns its size do not have, such as a golf course, airport, a lake and so forth.

“There are increases in costs everywhere. Everything cost money. We all have to bear the responsibility of taking care of the city,” he said.

The budget has no raises for city employees and no money for new positions.

Other items:

Sherry’s Army will be doing a cleanup Saturday from Harvey Street to 15th, and from A Street to Washington. They will start at 8 a.m. and volunteers are needed. Flyers will be distributed to people who live in those areas.

John Brand was appointed to another term on the Wellington Recreation Commission. His term was set to expire Sept. 30. He had been a city council member but did not run for re election.

The board of zoning appeals and the public building commission both have openings. There is only one application for both at this point, and the city is accepting applications.

It was also announced that Tami Klinedinst has resigned from the Sumner Regional Medical Center Health Care Authority Board.

The city is also seeking volunteers to work in the Veterans Room, located in the Memorial Auditorium. The room is dedicated to displaying items from soldiers from all wars, that have been loaned for that purpose. Hours are not yet set as the city wants to see what hours people will be available to work.

A work session is set for 5:30 p.m., next Tuesday, Aug. 25, at City Hall.

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