Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Pittsburg commission votes to exceed state revenue-neutral calculation, adopts 2026 budget
Summary
The Pittsburg City Commission voted to exceed the state revenue-neutral calculation and approved the city’s 2026 budget during its Sept. 9 meeting after hours of public comment and a staff finance presentation about county-assessed valuation changes.
The Pittsburg City Commission voted Sept. 9 to exceed the state-calculated revenue-neutral rate and approved the city’s proposed 2026 budget following a staff presentation and an extended public hearing. Commissioners said the step was needed to capture valuation growth, fund the city’s service levels and cover planned employee pay adjustments.
Finance director Jay told the commission that county-assessed valuation initially produced a published revenue-neutral rate of 43.834 mills but that city staff recalculated the practical planning figure to 47.475 mills after reviewing use-change entries in the county roll. Jay said roughly $15.26 million of assessed value — primarily tied to a hospital transaction and other use-change entries — appeared in the county’s submission but is expected to be removed before the final tax roll, and staff adjusted revenue projections to avoid overestimating receipts.
The public hearing that followed drew many residents who raised concerns about how reassessments and nonprofit-owned property (including the hospital and local higher-education property) affect individual tax bills. Several speakers provided household examples and said fixed-income residents and renters would feel the increases most. Commissioners and staff discussed state law limits on local control of valuations, potential policy options (exemptions or averaging), and the practical need to preserve the city’s core operating revenue and employee pay.
After discussion the commission approved a motion to exceed the state-published revenue-neutral calculation; the meeting record shows the motion carried. Later the commission took a roll-call vote to adopt the 2026 budget certificate — the statutory document that Jay and staff said drives the official budget numbers. The roll call recorded: Brooks: No; Hight: Yes; McNay: Yes; Munsell: No; Siegfried: Yes. The chair announced the motion carried and the 2026 budget was adopted.
City staff acknowledged errors in the narrative budget book made visible to the public (summary pages with spreadsheet-linking mistakes) and said the statutory budget certificate — the last pages of the packet and the document submitted to the state — represented the official totals the commission approved. Staff said they will republish corrected narrative pages after policy decisions are finalized and as the city transitions to a new financial management system.
What happens next: Adopted budget figures will be entered into the city’s financial system and staff said they will update and republish the budget book to correct the summary-page errors and reflect the commission’s decisions.
Votes at a glance: - Motion to exceed the revenue-neutral calculation: motion carried (commission announced "Motion carries"). - Adoption of 2026 budget (statutory certificate): approved by roll-call (Brooks: No; Hight: Yes; McNay: Yes; Munsell: No; Siegfried: Yes).
Sources and authority referenced in meeting: commissioners and speakers repeatedly discussed the Kansas revenue-neutral rate process and county assessment timing; staff repeatedly cited "resolution number 1296" as the instrument associated with the revenue-neutral action being considered.
