USD 333 asks city commission to consider sales tax measure

Concordia Unified School District 333 made a formal request to the Concordia city commission to consider passing a resolution to place a 1 percent general sales tax question on the ballot in the November 2 general election, in conjunction with a 30-year, $48.5 million bond issue question to fund facilities improvements.
USD 333 superintendent of schools Quentin Breese presented the request for the sales tax resolution to the city commission during its regular meeting on Wednesday.
“The formal ask would be, that at your next regularly scheduled commission meeting, you approve a resolution to support a 1 percent sales tax for an educational purpose. It will be classified as a general purpose sales tax, but it would be classified as an educational sales tax. That would be for the length of the bond, which is 30 years,” Breese said.
The USD 333 board of education, during a special meeting on Monday night, approved finalizing the scope of the bond project, finalizing the bond amount, the plan for financing the bond, and making a formal request to the city to include the city-wide 1 percent sales tax question on the ballot.
A resolution calling for a bond election and authorizing the filing of an application with the state board of education will be considered by the school board during its meeting on Monday night.
Should the city commission approve the request for the sales tax question and the school board approved the resolution for a bond election, then both questions would be placed on the ballot.
Breese said that if either of the two questions does not pass in the election, then both would fail.
Voters within the Concordia city limits would vote on both measures. Those living outside of Concordia, but within the school district, would vote on just the bond issue.
Should both measures be approved by the voters, then 90 percent of the funds generated by the increase in sales tax must be used to pay down the bonds and the remaining 10 percent would be retained by the city and can be used to address infrastructure needs.
City manager Amy Lange said that there will be an action item on the agenda for the commission’s next regular meeting on August 18 to either approve or not approve the resolution to place the sales tax question on the ballot.
Lange said that deciding what the city will do with the 10 percent of the sales tax revenue generated can be included on the agenda for the next meeting as a discussion item.
During his presentation to the commission, Breese talked about the lengthy process the school district has been through to get to the proposed $48.5 bond issue for facilities improvements.
A community engagement committee was formed in 2019 to work with HTK Architects and McCownGordon Construction on putting together a facilities plan.
When it became evident that the cost of facilities improvements was going to exceed what the local tax base is able to support through property taxes, the school district began to look at other possible funding methods, including a sales tax.
The idea of pairing a sales tax question with a bond issue was first presented to the city commission in December 2019.
Earlier this year, during a study session, representatives from USD 333 met with the city commission to discuss implementing a citywide sales tax to help fund facilities improvements.   The current sales tax rate in Concordia is 8.5 percent. Annual sales tax collections within the city limits are approximately $1.2 million per 1 percent of sales tax charged.
In May of this year, the community engagement committee, HTK Architects and McCownGordon recommended to the school board that the district place the $48.5 million bond issue and the 1 percent sales tax issue on the ballot in November to fund facilities improvements.
The improvements proposed include renovations and new additions to the Concordia Junior-Senior High School building; the removal of the current Concordia Middle School addition and the construction of a new addition that would include a new kitchen, a new gymnasium and expanded student commons; the renovation of the existing 1956 gymnasium; and improvements needed to bring the facilities in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The facilities improvement plan also includes the renovation of the USD 333 Service Center and moving the fifth and sixth grade students into that facility.
Improvements made to the Service Center building would not be included in the bond issue and would be paid by utilizing federal funds.
Jeff Widen, who was a member of the community engagement team, said that he didn’t always agree with the plans being discussed, but the reality of the situation is, at some point, something has to be done.
“I spent 32 years making a living selling something that people didn’t necessarily need but they wanted. And that was a pretty easy job. Right now, Quentin is tasked with the job of selling something that everybody needs but nobody wants to pay for. And one of the tools to make this more affordable to the community would be a sales tax option for us,” Widen said. “And while there are some things we don’t agree about, at some point you can only kick the can down the road before it starts costing us substantially more than this dollar amount.”
Commissioner Christy Hasch asked Breese if the school district had considered a special sales tax option that would be limited to 10 years and can be used solely for the purpose of a special project instead of the 30-year general sales tax.
Hasch said that the 30-year plan potentially ties the city’s hands.
“The balancing act we are trying to work out here is trying to keep the mill rate something manageable,” Breese said.
It is estimated that the $48.5 million bond, with 6 percent state aid and the 1 percent sales tax, would increase the tax rate by 13.13 mills. That would be an increase of $12.59 per month, or $151.02 per year, in taxes on a home valued at $100,000.
Hasch was informed that without the sales tax, the tax rate would increase by close to 30 mills.
“That is certainly a possibility, but that makes the mill rate rise substantially,” Breese said.
2022 Budget
Following a budget hearing during which nobody's comments were presented, the commission approved the 2022 budget.
The budget approved calls for total expenditures of $9,263,913 with a tax rate of 57.285 mills, compared to 57.308 mills in 2021 and 57.298 mills in 2020.
A memorandum presented to the commissioners by city finance director Amber Farha states that the budget includes a cost-of-living adjustment of 1.2 percent for all employees.
Farha stated that the operating expenses by departments were held constant or increased by up to 3 percent.
There will be a 5.8 percent increase in health insurance costs and a 1.5 percent increase in dental costs. The budget shows the city taking all of that increase with no change to employee costs.
Communications Equipment
Acting on a request from Cloud County Emergency Preparedness/Safety director James Quillen, the commission approved contributing $44,688.34 toward the cost of purchasing a new 911 dispatch radio console.
It was decided by the commission that the funds for the console will come from the American Rescue Plan Act disbursement the city will receive.
The dispatch radio console is 22 years old  and uses outdated software that is difficult to repair. The total cost to replace it is $111,866.84.
Quillen reported to the commission that the Cloud County board of commissioners had approved providing $150,000 to help cover the cost of upgrading the emergency communications system in the county.
The funds provided by the county will cover about 60 percent of the cost of the dispatch radio console as well as the total cost of fiber optic cable and digital repeaters throughout the county.
An effort was launched earlier this year to put all emergency responders in the county on a digital communications platform.
Upgrading the system to digital would help eliminate communications issues between the first responders in the county.
Quillen said the total cost of the project is $267,652.94.
Alcohol in the Park
City Recreation director Chris Atkins met with the commission and asked them to consider approving an ordinance that would allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages within the City Park boundaries of Washington Street to Cedar Street and 11th Street to 13th Street for certain events, with prior approval.
The ordinance would exclude all playground areas and other youth activities in session.
Atkins stated that the City Park has continued to be a great attraction for many outdoor activities from family gatherings, birthday parties, and weddings, to special events like the upcoming 150th Celebration.
The current city ordinance allows alcohol consumption for certain events at the Sports Complex, Broadway Plaza and Brown Grand Theatre.
For the 150th Celebration on August 14, it is the recommendation of the staff to include the pool parking lot, where the food vendors will be set up, as well as the tennis courts, where the cornhole tournament will be, in the area designated for alcohol consumption and to allow people to bring their own beverages. The area will be roped off to designate the allowed area.
Mayor Chuck Lambertz suggested including all of the city parks in the ordinance.
The commission approved the ordinance, which amends the alcohol on public properties ordinance to include the city parks, under the terms and conditions as shall be approved by the city manager or a designate.
Water Tower Agreement
The commission approved an amendment to the USCOC Nebraska/Kansas LLC (aka U.S. Cellular) water tower and ground space agreement.
U.S. Cellular is currently leasing space on the city’s east water tower and must remount its equipment and cabling so it does not interfere with the repainting of the tower.
Suez, which will be repainting the tower and providing subsequent maintenance, has quoted U.S. Cellular a price to remount the equipment.
U.S. Cellular requested that the city grant temporary relief of the lease payment, to recoup a portion of the expense, as was previously granted to Nex-Tech.
Under the amendment to the lease agreement, U.S. Cellular will pay nothing over the next four years.