GC, Holcomb and Finney Co. Commissioners Hold Joint Meeting

Garden City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) Today the Finney County, Garden City and Holcomb commissioners held a joint preliminary meeting to discuss four future topics.

The first of which was presenting preliminary plans for Jennie Barker Road between Schulman Ave. and K -156. This project has been on the books for over 15 years so the commissions discussed updated cost estimates.

The second topic was Farmland Road and the local funding for improvements to the road. When KDOT announced funding for the Transload Facility last August Farmland Road was under County Control. Now the city has annexed the southern segment adjacent to the ConAgra Property to the BNSF right-of-way. A current estimate has the local share at $930,000.

The commission then discussed liquor by the drink where the commissioners have a couple of options. They could pass a resolution removing the 30% food sales requirement to become a wet county or the public could petition for the change. Either way it would have to be voted on in a general election.

The last topic was sales tax as all three commissions have local sales tax components ending in the next few years. Currently, the sales tax rate inside the City is 8.65% and 7.65% in the County which includes the 6.5% state levy and 0.15% for Horsethief Reservoir. The Horsethief Reservoir levy projects to sunset in approximately 2021. The City and County both have permanent 0.5% levies for general purposes. The City has a 0.5% levy for transportation and tax reduction purposes which sunsets in 2025. The County has two 0.25% levies, one for transportation that sunsets in 2025, and one for the corrections facilitysunsets when the revenues cover the debt.

The commissions agree they will meet again later this summer to further discuss all of these topics.