Topeka considers raising property tax to support bus service

Topeka City Councilman Tony Emerson said this past week he admires the job general manager Susan Duffy has done with Topeka Metro, the city’s bus service, which won the 2018 Transit of the Year award from the Kansas Public Transit Association.

Still, Emerson suggested at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that because “we already tax people so much,” he felt reluctant to support Duffy’s request that the city raise the property tax mill levy assessed by the Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees Topeka Metro.

The TMTA’s request was a “hard sell,” Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla acknowledged at that same meeting.

Still, she said, increasing the TMTA’s levy would be an investment in the families here who depend on Topeka Metro to access the resources they need.