LOCAL TAXING & sPENDING DECISIONS SHOULD BE MADE BY
LOCALLY ELECTED OFFICIALS
The Lawrence City Commission strongly opposes the enactment
of State imposed spending or taxation controls or lids. The so-called Taxpayer
Bill of Rights (TABOR) proposals create an arbitrary and capricious procedure for
what should be an essential function of representative democracy: elected
officials determining the appropriate spending and taxing policies of their
community. Local tax and spending decisions should be made by locally elected
officials – not by artificial limits in the state statutes or constitution. The City desires to partner with the Legislature
to find solutions which will ease the hardship of property tax burdens on low
income, elderly homeowners while maintaining adequate funding sources for City
services.
State limits on ANNEXation Powers
The City of Lawrence opposes efforts to limit the ability of
cities to annex property. We oppose changes to the current state annexation
statutes. Annexation provides a key tool for municipal ability to manage and
plan for growth.
Protecting sales taxes as an essential City revenue source to fund important City services
Sales taxes are an increasingly important component of City
budgets, funding essential municipal services and capital improvements
which benefit our entire community. An important federal and state issue that
must be addressed is the legal authority to impose state, city, and county
sales taxes on electronic commerce and catalog sales. A sales tax on
e-commerce and catalog sales protects an important revenue source for state and
local governments and puts traditional land based businesses in our communities
on an equal taxation footing with their electronic competitors. The Kansas
Legislature should continue to pursue the “Stream-lined Sales Tax” efforts and
other opportunities to include Internet and catalog sales tax collection.
municipal authority to enact excise taxes.
The City of Lawrence supports the enactment of legislation
to allow all Kansas cities the ability to enact development excise taxes. In
2006 the Legislature adopted legislation which allows certain cities to
maintain existing excise taxes – but not cities such as Lawrence. This places
cities such as Lawrence at a competitive disadvantage – essentially penalizing Lawrence taxpayers who must pay more for infrastructure than residents of cities with
excise taxes. This is fundamentally unfair and the Legislature should enact
legislation allowing all cities this financing option.
telecommunications legislation
Lawrence's ability to franchise utility companies and
regulate its public rights-of-way must not be compromised. Private companies
which use a public asset – such as locally owned right-of-way – should continue
to be required to collect franchise fees for the use of public right-of-way and
property. These utilities should also continue to be required to relocate in
the right-of-way for public projects at their own expense – and not at the
expense of local taxpayers.
KPERS AND KP&F – COMMITMENTS to OUR Public SErvants
KPERS and KP&F are very important benefits for the
individuals who have chosen public service in the State of Kansas, including
City of Lawrence employees. We do all Kansans a disservice by ignoring current
and future funding obligations for this vital benefit system. Any proposals to
change KPERS and KP&F should encourage – not discourage – public service.
TRANSPORTATION PLANNING & FUNDING
We support the current State highway program and the
necessary funding to achieve the goals of the program. We support efforts to
renew the State of Kansas Comprehensive Transportation Program beyond 2009 and
provide additional resources for our transportation needs, including streets,
transit, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and airport improvements. The City of Lawrence recommends revision of the
formula used to allocate federal funds to municipal transit providers. The
current system is inequitable in its allocation methodology.
homeland
security
The City of Lawrence urges an active partnership between
state and local governments regarding issues of homeland security. The City’s
police department and our City/County fire and medical department are essential
resources in providing security and safety to our community. These departments
rely on funding resources that should be protected by our State legislature.
MOTOR
FUEL TAX REVENUES
The motor fuel tax is an important revenue source for the
City of Lawrence and is used to maintain City streets. This source of revenue,
however, is not keeping pace with the City’s rising street maintenance costs.
The City of Lawrence requests the Legislature be mindful of the increase in
street maintenance costs and consider providing cities with revenue sources
that will grow with the increased street maintenance costs.
CITY
AUTHORITY FOR REGULATION OF DRINKING ESTABLISHMENTS
Some drinking
establishments negatively impact the public’s health and safety because of the
manner in which they are organized or managed. Currently, Kansas statutes do not grant cities any measure of direct control over liquor licensing
decisions related to such drinking establishments located within their
boundaries, and this limits the ability of the cities to move to timely address
these negative secondary effects. We urge that cities be granted the
power to deny drinking establishment licenses for these establishments when the
evidence clearly establishes such harms.
STATE ALCOHOL TAX
FUNDS IMPORTANT CITY & COMMUNITY SERVICES
The City of Lawrence and many community groups rely heavily
on monies received from State taxes levied on alcohol purchases. Pursuant to
State law, one-third of the fund revenues are allocated to the City's General
Fund, one-third to the Special Recreation Fund and one-third goes in the City’s
Special Alcohol Fund. Resources in the City’s general fund provide support for
a number of City services, while monies deposited in the City’s Recreation Fund
provides resources for a number of park and recreation activities. A number
of not-for-profit Lawrence organizations rely on the funds from the City’s
Special Alcohol Fund for their programs. These
programs and services are vital to the health of the Lawrence community. The City of Lawrence opposes any efforts to divert or
diminish the distribution of local alcohol tax fund dollars to the state.
IMMUNITY FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS – INVOLUNTARY BLOOD DRAWS
City law enforcement has had difficulty in
obtaining blood tests pursuant to K.S.A. 8-1001. The statute provides immunity
for health care workers where consent has been given for such tests. The
Kansas Hospital Association does not believe that the statute provides the same
immunity for involuntary blood tests. City staff believes that this is a
legislative oversight in need of correction to provide clear immunity for
health care workers in these cases.
unfunded mandates
The City of Lawrence opposes unfunded mandates from the
State of Kansas as they drain limited resources from needed City programs and
activities. State legislators know how federal mandates hamper the State's
ability to respond to problems and issues, similarly the State should not
impose unfunded mandates on local units of government.
The City supports state and federal
financial assistance for mandated public works improvements, such as the
current levee recertification requirements.
waste reduction/recycling
We continue to support State efforts to encourage resource
conservation and recycling. The City of Lawrence supports the adoption of a beverage
container deposit law, a “bottle bill”. States with bottle bills typically
have recycling rates for beverage containers in the 80 percent range compared
with recycling rates in the 20-30 percent range for states without a bottle
bill. Such legislation would help reduce roadside litter and decrease
municipal waste collection costs.
ENSURING ADEQUATE WATER SUPPLIES FOR OUR FUTURE
Because a good water supply is essential to the welfare and
growth of the Lawrence community, the City Commission has taken steps to assure continued quality water resources. The City opposes federal and
state regulatory changes to quality standards that are not demonstrably related
to public health unless adequate state and federal financial assistance is
provided to meet such new treatment requirements. We oppose water transfers
that will negatively affect Lawrence’s current and future water supplies.
The City of Lawrence supports continued
study and implementation of appropriate plans to respond to the sedimentation
issues of Kansas Reservoirs. Clinton Reservoir is a vital water supply source
for the Lawrence community.
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Clinton
Reservoir is vital to Lawrence’s water supply
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HOUSING
TRUST FUND SUPPORT
The City urges the Legislature to favorably consider funding
options for local housing trust funds, including the ability to locally
increase mortgage registration fees to provide a revenue source to fund city
sponsored housing trust funds enhancing housing opportunities for residents.
