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Commission weighs mill-levy options as finance director warns of $738,000 shortfall
Summary
City finance staff told the Salina City Commission the proposed 2027 budget currently shows about a $738,000 general-fund gap and laid out mill-levy options including the revenue-neutral rate and increases that would add between $605,000 and $1.9 million in revenue. Commissioners signaled support for holding the mill where it is while they consider data before the July 20 notification deadline.
Debbie Pack, Salina’s director of finance, told the commission the 2027 draft budget shows a general-fund shortfall of about $738,000 and described options for addressing it through property-tax settings. She said the county-assigned revenue-neutral rate this year is 27.526 and would yield a little over $16 million; using last year’s mill levy of 28.568 would provide about $605,000 more, and a 1-mill increase would generate nearly $1.9 million.
Pack explained the timetable that constrains the decision: if the commission chooses to exceed the revenue-neutral rate it must notify the county by July 20 so county notices can be mailed and a public hearing held; otherwise the city can adopt its budget on the August 25 deadline at the revenue-neutral rate. “By July 20, we have to notify the county whether or not we are going to exceed our revenue-neutral rate,” Pack said, adding that published numbers can only be lowered later, not increased. Commissioners debated tradeoffs between maintaining services and minimizing taxpayer cost: one commissioner said he’d rather “increase the tax and cut the service back” than risk deferred maintenance, while others favored keeping the mill levy at the prior year or current rate and revisiting the matter at the next meeting.
Because the commission has one meeting remaining before the statutory notification date, staff asked for direction and committed to supplying any additional information requested. The discussion produced no formal vote on a mill rate at the June 22 meeting; commissioners indicated they would “percolate” on the options and return with a decision by the July meeting.
