By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays city commissioners gave their full support to fellow commissioner Henry Schwaller’s proposal Thursday night to develop an alliance with Ellis County and Hays USD 489 to share resources and cut costs.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Vice-Mayor Shaun Musil. “When we all get elected, whether it’s city, county or school board, our first interest is our communities.
“It’s almost scary what’s going on in the economy. We don’t really know what’s going to happen.” Musil acknowledged the financial struggle of the Hays school district “because of state issues. The city has done a great job managing our finances very well because we can control most of it,” he added.
Noted economists have predicted current financial trends, such as low oil prices and declining state revenues, may continue for the next 18 to 24 months, according to Schwaller.
The declining state revenues are a particular affront to Mayor Eber Phelps, a former longtime Democratic state representative for Hays in the 111th District.
“We are, in my opinion, forced into this situation,” Phelps said. “We’ve got to figure something out.”
“The state eliminated one-third of its revenue stream. They keep struggling in Topeka, taking money from the Kansas Department of Transportation, etc.”
Phelps said he checked Wednesday with the Kansas Revisor of Statutes office and was told “we’d have $1 billion in the state coffers if the third leg of the revenue stool had not been eliminated by removal of the income tax for LLCs and proprietorships and so forth.”
He described the revenue shortage as “self-inflicted” and added “it’s trickled down to school districts especially, and even to county and city governments.
“The other thing is in trying to recover all this, the state has increased sales tax not once, but twice, and they’ve increased fees all over the place. That was a nice little tool for local governments. I know our school district is talking about a sales tax increase (to finance building improvements) but the fact of the matter there’s already been two recent state sales tax increases and there is a third increase in another area.
“That elimination of the income tax has just been the most detrimental thing that I’ve seen in many, many years here in our state,” Phelps concluded.
Commissioners directed Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty to contact the county and school board to schedule an initial joint alliance meeting early in January.