Finance director outlines CIP priorities, centralization and cost‑recovery plan

Mark Manning, Wichita’s finance director, presented a high‑level overview of the 10‑year Capital Improvement Program (CIP), the city’s financing framework and two operating budget strategies: centralization of financial services and a cost‑recovery policy guided by a fee 'cost pyramid.'

Manning told council the CIP will be tilted toward maintenance in the near term and be aligned with the strategic plan and the community investment (comp) plan. He described "geo at large" (discretionary local property tax) as the most flexible funding slice and said staff target approximately a 50/50 split between cash and debt in funding projects, noting a 67/33 debt benchmark among some AAA cities.

On centralization and cost recovery, Manning said staff expect to realize about $850,000 in spending reductions through consolidating certain finance functions, improving cost accounting and creating memoranda of agreement with departments. He also described a proposed internal service fund to better cost out administrative overhead and said staff are developing a full fee inventory and a policy framework to decide which services should be subsidized and which should recover full cost.

Council asked for details on large projects that may require policy direction (Manning cited a potential $30 million downtown police headquarters as an example) and discussed the timing and operational impacts of shifting functions into a centralized finance model. Manning said implementation assumptions and staffing proposals would be brought forward for council review during budget development.