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# Hutchinson council set to take up 2027 budget, tax rate above revenue neutral and $4 million bond issue Tuesday
- URL: https://www.citizenjournal.us/hutchinson-council-set-to-take-up-2027-budget-tax-rate-above-revenue-neutral-and-4-million-bond-issue-tuesday/
- Published: 2026-08-28T15:10:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T15:10:00.000Z
- Description: The published agenda lists neither a proposed 2027 mill levy nor a bottom-line budget figure.
- Author: Rica Simpson
- Tags: hutch, dnn, #news

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Hutchinson property owners face a city tax rate above the revenue neutral rate for 2027 under a resolution the City Council is scheduled to consider at back-to-back budget hearings Tuesday, Sept. 1\. Nothing is settled until the council votes; the agenda pairs each hearing with a motion to be taken up afterward, including one to adopt the 2027 budget itself.

A rate above the revenue neutral rate — the rate that would raise the same amount of property tax revenue as the year before on the same property — means higher city tax bills, and Kansas law requires a governing body to hold a hearing and pass a resolution before levying one. The council has been weighing whether to exceed the rate since July. Neighboring South Hutchinson set its own hearing on exceeding the revenue neutral rate for Sept. 14.

Councilmembers are also set to consider an ordinance authorizing the issuance of $3,995,000 in general obligation improvement bonds, Series 2026-A, along with a companion resolution prescribing the bonds' form and details. According to the published agenda, the ordinance provides for the levy and collection of an annual tax to pay principal and interest on the bonds as they come due; the agenda does not say what improvements the borrowing would finance, and it lists the dollar figure in brackets. Finance Director Angela Richard said the council unanimously approved, at its Aug. 18 meeting, a separate ordinance authorizing up to $235,000 in general obligation bonds to reimburse the city for demolishing 211 E. 4th, where a bid of just over $218,000 was awarded.

The meeting is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Council Chambers, where city code limits remarks on matters not on the agenda to five minutes per speaker.

A consent agenda sweeps the Aug. 18 minutes, an appropriation ordinance of $1,419,475.95, the July 2026 financial reports and VAC-26-0003, vacating part of a platted building setback on Lot 1, Block B, Marivista Heights Addition at 309 W. 30th Ave. The Aug. 18 consent agenda, carrying a $2,009,490.35 appropriation ordinance, passed 4-1 after Council Member Stacy Goss questioned expenditures to the Cosmosphere and voted against it. No executive session is listed, and the council's next meetings are Sept. 15 and Oct. 6.

*This article was written using our proprietary AI system, Cronkite. The final decision to publish this article was made by a human. For more info, read our* [*AI policy*](https://www.citizenjournal.us/ai-policy/)*.*

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