Topeka citywide sales tax suggested to go countywide to help parks and rec

Shawnee County needs a consistent, long-term source to meet the $20 million worth of deferred maintenance needs existing in its parks and recreation department, a Topeka businessman told Shawnee County commissioners Monday.

Joseph Ledbetter, a Topeka lawyer, asked Commissioners Kevin Cook, Shelly Buhler and Bob Archer to help arrange for the county to accomplish that by teaming up with Topeka’s city government to turn its citywide half-cent sales tax into a countywide tax, while extending it for 10 years.

The tax would raise an estimated $17.5 million annually, of which $14.5 million would continue to finance street-related purposes while $3 million would cover deferred maintenance costs in parks and recreation, Ledbetter said at the commission’s morning meeting.

“This is really not a tax increase, and yet it solves a terrible shortage of maintenance funds for Shawnee County Parks and Recreation,” he said.

(Read more: News – The Topeka Capital-Journal)