By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Part of the debate over continued COVID-19 relief in Washington is whether or not to provide money to state and local governments to help them deal with the loss of tax revenue from the shutdown of the economy. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has said that the state level needs it. Hutchinson City Manager John Deardoff looks at it differently.
"I've kind of got mixed feelings about that," Deardoff said. "I think, obviously, there's been a lot of stimulus money to help private small business, big business as well. The missing like is revenue loss for municipalities and counties across the country. We're all having to make adjustments. I worry about what our government at the federal level can afford. If somehow, we at the local level can figure out a way to fix our own problems, that would be ideal."
One of the biggest challenges facing Hutchinson going forward will have to do with staying on a solid fiscal footing.
"The first big policy decision that we've got to keep front and center is that we're financially stable, financially sound," Deardoff said. "That's not easily done in these times, and our sales tax and property taxes are our two main revenues and property tax is not going to be an option."
This isn't the first time that cities have had to deal with expected revenue not coming in.
"Going back ten years, we had the Local Ad Valorem Tax Reduction Fund, which was a state part of sales tax that went back to local governments," Deardoff said. "We had revenue sharing and the state basically took that away, quit making those payments, with the idea that they would bring those back and they never have. Some of the state revenue that flowed to municipalities and counties is no longer there and hasn't been for years."
There may have been a brief period when revenues were strong where actually paying that bill was considered at the state level, but now that all levels of government will be in dire straits, Deardoff doesn't expect that to come back.