If you’ve ever wondered where your tax dollars go, or why city services sometimes feel stretched, you’re not alone. These are the same questions many people ask, especially during budget season. On September 22, 2025, the City Commission adopted the 2026 operating budget after months of public discussion about revenues, costs, and service levels. With that decision made, it’s fair to ask: what happens next—and are things “back to normal”?
The short answer to whether things are “back to normal” is: not quite. Adopting the 2026 budget didn’t bring business back to normal. To avoid deficits across multiple funds, including water and wastewater, the City had to make some tough choices this summer. Every dollar we spend is essential to maintaining the services our community relies on, but during this period, we have strictly limited our spending to core needs. A hiring freeze was implemented, staffing levels were reduced, and salaries were frozen. Planned vehicle and equipment replacements are on hold, and no new capital projects are moving forward beyond those already committed.
Within the General Fund, expenses were cut by more than 39%. When you factor in deferred replacements and removed capital, the overall reduction comes to about 57% compared to 2025. That means leaner operations are the new normal. For residents, this looks like slower routine street maintenance (such as micro surfacing and pothole repair), fewer demolitions of hazardous structures, tighter cost-share sidewalk programs, and smaller local matches for grants—just to name a few. The dedicated street sales tax and quality of life sales tax certainly help, but they only cover a portion of what’s needed.
It’s also worth remembering how your property taxes are divided. If you live in the city limits, your bill reflects multiple taxing entities: the State of Kansas (statewide school levy), Dickinson County, the City of Abilene, the Abilene Public Library, USD 435 (supplemental and capital outlay), the Chisholm Trail Extension District #20, and the Cemetery District. For 2024 (taxes funding 2025), the total mill levy was 161.534. Of that, 47.536 mills went to the City and Library combined; subtracting the library’s 8.219 mills leaves 39.317 mills for core city operations—about 24% of the total. Put another way, only about 24 cents of every local property-tax dollar supported city services such as police, fire, animal control, streets and alleys, levee maintenance, parks and the pool, community development, inspections, municipal court, the senior center, the civic center, the airport, core administration, and more. The other 76 cents went to the other taxing entities.
From my short time here, I’ve seen firsthand how dedicated the department directors and city staff are. They’ve cut costs, taken on extra duties, and found ways to do more with less. These professionals—your neighbors—share the same stake in Abilene’s future that you do. Their commitment gives me confidence that financial stability is within reach.
Conversations at the state level—particularly around property taxes—can sometimes make civic life seem simple: lower taxes, higher services, faster results—and if that doesn’t happen, it must mean someone’s doing something wrong. But local government is much more complicated. Running a city means reconciling demands that can’t all be met at once. Roads, for example, aren’t just asphalt; they involve drainage, utilities, bid laws, traffic patterns, and contracts worth millions of dollars. Delays aren’t “red tape” for its own sake—they’re about sequencing, financing, inspections, and coordinating many moving parts. That’s why sustaining essential services will never be simple. Balancing community expectations with practical realities requires teamwork, patience, and public engagement—and we can achieve this by fostering open communication, building a shared understanding of how local government operates, and working together as a community.
Written by Interim City Manager Jon Quinday as a Letter to the Editor, originally published in the October 2, 2025, edition of the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle.