By Chance Swaim/The Wichita Eagle
The two candidates for Sedgwick County Commission District 3 have different visions for how county government should raise and spend money in the face of increasing property taxes and a housing shortage in the Wichita area.
Celeste Racette, a fiscally conservative Democrat with a background in accounting, said she wants to offer property tax relief by cutting waste and eliminating “taxpayer handouts” to developers while Stephanie Wise, a Republican with a background in commercial real estate, said she plans to save money through consolidating services and tax reform.
The topic of property taxes dominated the Wichita Journalism Collaborative’s candidate forum on housing Monday night at Friends University, where both candidates fielded questions ranging from housing affordability to homelessness to flooding in west Wichita.
But first, Racette immediately went on offense, saying Wise would have a conflict of interest by serving as a commissioner while continuing to operate her commercial real estate business while also deciding zoning cases and appointing members to boards that regulate commercial development.
“The county commissioner makes appointments to the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission, and its subgroups, like the Board of Zoning Appeals, play a role in affordable housing,” Racette said. “My appointees will give top priority to the public interest and not be a rubber stamp for developers. Where does my opponent’s loyalties lie?”
Wise denied that it would represent a conflict.
“I’m a small business owner, and I have been for the last 10 years, specializing in lease negotiations for both tenants and landlords, none of which has any conflict of interest that my opponent has suggested,” Wise said.
Wise said she supports a proposal to eliminate property tax funding for “quality of life” services such as Exploration Place, Sedgwick County Zoo, Lake Afton and Sedgwick County Park. Under that proposal, those services instead would be funded by the county’s share of a countywide 1% sales tax.
“I would be open to any conversation that includes tax reform in a sense of relieving our taxpayers and ensuring that we can look them in the eye and tell them that their property tax dollars are only paying for core services of county government: public safety, public works and public health,” Wise said.
Racette’s plan rests on being a watchdog of the county’s finances.
“It’s not necessarily, ‘Oh, I’m going to cut property taxes’ or ‘Oh, I’m going to switch it out for sales tax,’” Racette said. “You can’t do that. You have to look at the finances and figure out where the money is going to and try to cut it so that we don’t have these exorbitant raises in property taxes every year.”
Racette vowed to stand in the way of incentives and tax breaks for developers. Wise said she wants to increase them to promote building.
“We give millions of dollars away to developers, and we don’t get it back,” Racette said. She said the county should instead “look at the finances and we make sure the developers aren’t getting the handouts and that the working people of Wichita and Sedgwick County are actually getting a fair shake and representation with how our money is spent.”
Wise countered by saying “I think that the private sector and our relationship with developers is going to be important to find a way that we can provide this housing for our population.” She also expressed support for the Reinvestment Housing Incentive District, or RHID, incentive program.
Both candidates said they want to limit spending as much as possible. “At the county level, we need to hold tight and make sure that we are being very lean in our budgets, . . . limiting them as much as we can,” Wise said. “I can’t stand up here and say I’m going to cut your property taxes,” Racette said. “But I can promise you when I get in there, I will look at the numbers and ensure that your money is spent fairly for you as a taxpayer advocate.”
This article was republished here with the permission of: The Wichita Eagle