WICHITA — As Wichita struggles to find enough money to repair its deteriorating streets, another Kansas community has chosen a solution for its street problems.
Topeka residents approved a half-cent sales tax Tuesday to fix streets and other infrastructure. The proposal to raise the sales tax to 7.95 cents on the dollar was approved by 57 percent of voters.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports: The 10-year tax takes effect Oct. 1, with proceeds going to pay costs of “maintenance and improvements of existing streets, gutters, curbs, sidewalks, alleys and street lighting.”
Wichita has more than 500 miles of streets in “critical” condition and isn’t spending enough to keep up with the deterioration, we reported in February.
2 Comments
Unfortunately, I don’t think we feel that we can trust our City Council or other officials with just handing them more money. They don’t appear to be good stewards of the tax dollars they have now.
Having (somewhat) recently moved from Topeka, I can attest that the roads there are in far worse shape than Wichita’s, no matter how “critical” Wichita’s roads are said to be. The sales tax idea probably isn’t a bad one so long as a) the money is actually used for street upgrades and b) they don’t wait ten years to actually start repairs.