Topeka City Council holds public hearings, close to finalizing 2024 budget

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Topeka city leaders heard from the community ahead of making decisions on next year's budget.

Topeka City Council held public hearings at Tuesday's regular city council meeting to hear from the public about proposed changes to the 2024 operating budget. The proposed budget would lower the current overall mill levy by one mill.

After hearing from concerned community members, council members voted 7 to 3 to approve a budget that's above the existing revenue neutral rate of 35.4 mills. The current budget proposal for 2024 would increase the mill levy to 37.9. However, this amount is lower than the 2023 overall budget, where the mill was set at 38.9.

Another budget discussion council members had was about the Topeka Metro. One Topekan appeared in front of the governing body to share concerns about how much of the city's budget is allotted for the Topeka Metro. After some discussions, city council members voted to approve a levy of 4.2 mills for Topeka Metro.

This comes after Topeka Metro announced it's launching an updated system that includes the following route changes that started Tuesday, Sept. 5:

• The East 6th Street route will no longer offer Rice Road service
• The Huntoon Street and West 17th Street routes will change from ever 30 minutes to hourly
• Some routes will have different time point changes

At the time the changes were announced, Topeka Metro told 27 News they were the result of both poor route performance and ongoing issues with recruiting and maintaining an adequate workforce.

Topeka City Council is scheduled to vote on the budget at the next city council meeting, Sept. 12.