Wichita Century II

06/16/2026

Wichita residential taxpayers pay a lot in property taxes. Do businesses pay their fair share?
Tax breaks will be broken down next (in upcoming posts) to see if we really got everything promised.

06/11/2026

Please be careful this weekend starting this Friday, June 12. Kellogg will be CLOSED at I-135.

The center of the U.S. 54/I-135 interchange, as well as several associated ramps, will close beginning 7 p.m. Friday, June 12 and are expected to reopen early Monday, June 15. 🚧

The following ramps will be closed starting 7 p.m. on June 12:
🚗Northbound I-135 to westbound U.S. 54
🚗Southbound I-135 to eastbound U.S. 54
🚗Eastbound U.S. 54 to northbound I-135
🚗Westbound U.S. 54 to southbound I-135
🚗Westbound U.S. 54 to Washington Street
🚗Washington Street to westbound U.S. 54
🚗Washington Street to eastbound U.S. 54
🚗Grove Street to eastbound U.S. 54

Open ramps at the interchange include:
🚗Northbound I-135 to eastbound U.S. 54
🚗Southbound I-135 to westbound U.S. 54
🚗Eastbound U.S. 54 to southbound I-135
🚗Westbound U.S. 54 to northbound I-135

06/09/2026

Stay off Kellogg headed west! Traffic is backed up from downtown to Ridge and they are trying to get emergency vehicles through. Hope everyone involved is ok.

06/08/2026

Wichita Eagle Reporter Chance Swaim explains Industrial Revenue Bond (IRB) proposals up for vote at the June 9 City Council meeting. IRBs allow property tax exemptions for businesses. These IRBs subsidies (ie. non-annexed businesses) goes even further to eliminate funding for: 1) USD259 and/or Derby public schools, 2) USD 259 bonds, 3) Wichita city funding, 4) Sedgwick County funding. Good Jobs First, a nonpartisan, nonprofit policy resource center that track economic development subsidies and corporate misconduct estimates Wichita, Sedgwick County and Wichita Public Schools have lost more than $159 million to corporate tax abatement in the past decade.

Does anyone know where the complete list of companies with IRBs is on the City of Wichita website? And where are the follow up 5 and 10 year reviews on IRBs?

https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article316020232.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawST4-ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETE3N0xSeVVoT0JPTkppaHZJc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHqaPTwegsTeZBvVpdtgqedR2IwCizIUznPtxy78jN3d23RwdnzVr_SEl8uvr_aem_W3eJv3ItA0_It_ZwB37nrQ

This comes as governments wrestle with how to balance increasing costs to provide government services, skyrocketing residential property valuations and the need to compete with other cities for large companies.

06/07/2026

Sedgwick County Finance Department cares about property tax payers.
They are working on the
SSMID problem!

06/06/2026

Never forget.

06/05/2026

The KORA on the College Hill sidewalk/swale/flume came back with Wichita City Council November 6, 2025 minutes approving $1.2 M in funding for the 2026 Sidewalk Maintenance Program. On January 13, 2026, a contract for $1,006,700 for sidewalk maintenance was signed with Plans to be prepared under the direction of the City Engineer. No specific answer on the cost for the College Hill project.

06/03/2026

Be careful when buying a condo or apartment in District 1 downtown in the SSMID area (Shepard). There could be an hidden extra tax in the property taxes for the condo you want to buy.

Hidden? Yep, and you will not learn about it from your Title Insurance company, or your realtor. It's your responsibility to find out about it. Looking up the taxes for a condo on the Sedgwick County Property Tax website does not always show the SSMID tax rate - the tax rate could bundled into one tax rate! (see first photo were the tax rate is shown as 122.809000).

Commercial property owners see the tax in complete detail by tax authority (see second photo listing the tax rates for 8 categories, including self supporting municipal improvement district at 10 mills). But not all residential condo owners get this kind of detail. Why? And why no consistency?

06/02/2026

Your city tax dollars hard at work - District 1 (Joseph Shepard) public works project. Douglas street across from Blessed Sacrament someone had the bright idea to put in a sidewalk that ends halfway down the hill into College Hill Park. The result? Erosion and now a barrier is up to prevent people from walking down it. And the City wanted $850 million more to spend in sales tax? NO WAY.