ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Liberal citizens had the opportunity to hear an update on the happenings of the city from City of Liberal leadership last week, and one of the major points of the presentation was about the city’s overall budget.

“The budget is something I could probably talk about for hours and hours on end, but the goal is to help make it easier for people in the community to understand,” Diseker said. “I see the budget as a big puzzle, and something everyone should know about me is I like doing puzzles. I walked into my first day of preschool all ready to go, and I spent the day in the corner doing puzzles I’d taken off the shelf, which my teacher recounted to my mother when she came and picked me up later that day. Doing the budget is like putting together a big puzzle, and every piece is different every year. For 2026, the commission and I were very adamant about putting out information and documentation to the public to help them better understand where everything goes and how everything comes together. The 2026 budgeted expenses came to a total of $61.8 million, with $26.6 million (43 percent) going toward infrastructure and environment, which is roads and sewers and all of that. $14.8 million (24 percent) goes  toward public safety, which is the Liberal Police Department, Liberal Fire Department, etc. $6.9 million (11 percent) goes toward transportation, which includes city sidewalks, the CityBus program, Liberal Municipal Airport, etc. $5 million (8 percent) goes toward Recreation Department programs and spaces, which includes the parks, the golf course, part of Liberal Memorial Library, Arkalon Park, and other similar areas. $4.8 million (8 percent) goes toward administration and government, which includes everyone at City Hall and the city commission. The final $3.7 million (6 percent) goes toward economic development, which includes tourism, the Mid-America Air Museum, public affairs, and the different incentives we offer. There are parts of our budget that have restrictions, by law, and we have to abide by those, we can’t just get money and then spend it wherever we want. We see the comments online asking ‘Why isn’t money being used for X or Y, why is it being used there?’ but there are some things we simply can’t use money for outside its given purpose.”

Diseker then talked about this year’s budgeted revenues.

“We operate a balanced budget and do our best to be good stewards of Liberal’s taxpayer dollars, and we always like to say no one does more with less than Liberal,” Diseker said. “27.9 percent of our revenue comes from sales, and that includes income from water/sewer/trash, various leases and rentals, the cemetery, Willow Tree Golf Course, and admission to the air museum and similar City of Liberal places. 24.8 percent comes from taxes, which includes property taxes, motor vehicle taxes, the fuel tax, utility taxes, and the transient guest tax, among others. 24.5 percent comes from fund balance savings, and that includes rollover funds like the cash reserves, which is required by law. 8.1 percent comes from the 1-cent sales tax, which comes from the programs related to beautification, community development, infrastructure, and we pull about $5 million from that every year. 4.5 percent of revenue comes from grants and donations and other miscellaneous funds we get, and another 6.2 percent comes from fines, fees and other franchise fees. The last few parts of the revenue come from reimbursed incentives such as Rural Housing Incentive Districts and Tax Increment Financing projects (2.1 percent), services, which includes Recreation Department programs, CityBus rider fees (0.4 percent), city licences and permits (0.3 percent) and interest and royalties (1.2 percent).”

Diseker then went into more detail about the 1-cent sales tax.

“With the 1-cent sales tax, there is oversight from the Focus on the Future Committee, which meets once a month, and we’ve been building up that relationship for multiple years now,” Diseker said. “This is a tax paid by locals and visitors, and it’s fully approved by citizens, with the next renewal coming up in 2030. 60 percent goes toward Streets, Drainage and Capital Improvements, 15 percent goes toward Economic Development, 15 percent goes toward Housing and Community Development, 5 percent goes toward Crime Prevention, and the final 5 percent goes toward City Beautification.”

Diseker concluded her presentation by comparing Liberal to other area communities.

“We care about Liberal being an affordable place to live, we don’t want Liberal to become out of people’s price range,” Diseker said. “In terms of taxes per person, in 2026, Liberal levied $8,131,454, and when you divide that by the 19,184 population, that $423.87 per person. Garden City levied $12,274,793, and when you divide that by its 27,996 population, that amounts to $438.45 per person. Dodge City levied $8,197,632, and with that’s divided by the 27,663 population, that’s $296.34 per person. Dodge City also has that big plant and some other major businesses that help offset some of that tax burden. While those numbers are interesting, the number I’m most proud of is our city debt levels, which include the General Obligation bonds, Economic Development bonds and other bonds and debt we have. Liberal’s debt level is $42,180,061, while Garden City is at $145,777,117 and Dodge City is at $174,131,221. Overall, we’re very proud of what we’re seeing, and we will work on keeping the community updated as time goes on.”