Topekans will vote Nov. 6 on whether to extend the citywide, half-cent sales tax used to finance street work for 10 more years, through Oct. 1, 2029.
City governing body members voted 8-2 Tuesday evening, with council members Sylvia Ortiz and Jeff Coen dissenting, to approve a resolution scheduling that election. In expressing her objections, Ortiz noted that the question that will go on the ballot would arrange for revenue from the renewed tax, like the current one, to be spent only to cover “costs of maintenance and improvements of existing streets, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, alleys and street lighting.”
She said she wanted the word “existing” removed, as it keeps the city from using revenue from the tax to widen streets or put in curbs, gutters, sidewalks or concrete where those things don’t currently exist.
That’s not fair to residents in underdeveloped council districts like the one Ortiz represents who often don’t have such things as sidewalks, curbs and gutters, she said.
“We want what everybody else gets,” she added.
Governing body members heard seven members of the public speak on the proposal Tuesday evening. Four of those advocated seeking to make the tax countywide and using the additional revenue that would bring to address Shawnee County parks and recreation deferred maintenance needs. However, no governing body members made any effort to go in that direction.
(Read more: Local – The Topeka Capital-Journal)