Municipal News & Jobs

It’s the largest economic development project in Kansas history. All the numbers associated with the new Panasonic battery plant at DeSoto — scheduled to open early next year — are gigantic: Up to $4 billion in investment. As many as 4,000 new jobs. More than $800 million in tax credits from the state. Panasonic is expected to have a transformative effect on the region and the state. Anything less, in fact, would be a major disappointment. There’s just one problem: President-elect Donald Trump appears on track to undermine Panasonic’s work before it has even begun. Trump — as has been widely reported — is contemplating rescinding the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles. That probably would depress the American market for EVs: Sales could fall as much as 27% if the credit goes away. “You can’t make a vehicle $7,500 more expensive and sell more of them easily,” one analyst told The New York Times this week. “People are only willing to pay so much.”
Source: Wichita Eagle

if somebody’s proposing to build something in your neighborhood, you’d probably like to know about it. And if it’s something that will alter the character of your neighborhood or affect your property value, you’d probably want to have a voice in the city’s zoning approval process, right? Those questions are being grappled with at Wichita City Hall and the City Council was briefed on various options this week, but it really comes down to two key questions: ▪ Who should receive a letter from the city notifying them when projects are proposed near their home? ▪ Whose input should trigger discussion of projects at the City Council level. Most cities just notify the property owners within 200 feet of a development plan. Wichita starts there, but expands the notification zone out as far as 1,000 feet for larger projects, based on the acreage of the project, said Scott Wadle, director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Department. At Tuesday’s City Council workshop meeting, Johnson suggested that the mailed-notification area should be at least 500 feet. To return to our football analogy, that would be about 1 2/3 football fields. The rest of the council seemed a bit chilly toward expanding the notification zone. The reason is cost.
Source: Wichita Eagle

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday called for no new tax cuts in 2025, setting the Democrat on a collision path with Republicans who have vowed to take action on property taxes after voters bolstered the party’s supermajority in the Legislature. The conflict’s outcome will influence how much Kansas homeowners pay in future property taxes, one of the most hated forms of taxation that helps pay for city and county government and public education. Some Republican lawmakers want to cut the statewide mill levy, which helps fund schools, while others favor a constitutional amendment that would limit annual property valuation increases. Whatever the specific proposal, GOP lawmakers say they must deliver homeowners some form of property tax relief. The Democratic governor wants them to hit pause. “I’ve been pretty consistent on saying we need to just take a breath and wait,” Kelly told reporters at Cedar Crest, the governor’s residence in Topeka, on Monday.
Source: Wichita Eagle