Topeka City Councilwoman Christina Valdivia-Alcalá is raising concerns with how administrative changes at the federal government will affect Topeka.
During a special city meeting to discuss budget planning for 2026, Valdivia-Alcalá said the city needs to get things in order before potential new federal rules come down and change city functions. President-elect Trump will take office Jan. 20.
“My concern is what this year is going to bring with any possible — it’s not possible, it’s going to happen — federal changes that are going to be coming down the pike that we have no idea what those are,” Valdivia-Alcalá said. “And we have no idea if we are going to have to sacrifice dollars being taken away from us for any particular reason, which is going to add to this whole (budget) thing and then where are we going to go?
“We don’t know how it’s going to affect education system. We don’t know impact possibly the increase or maybe decrease in poverty. We don’t know that.”
Valdivia-Alcalá said she feels a deep sense of dread but also a need to be prepared for all the possibilities.
“There’s so many variables as we get ready to go into the new year and the next four years that I, besides feeling a deep sense of dread, I just believe we need to be as ready as possible to make sure we have what we need,” Valdivia-Alcalá said.
Topeka City Councilwoman Christina Valdivia-Alcalá raised concerns Thursday over how changes in the federal government could impact Topeka.
The Topeka City Council considers a hiring freeze
While discussing Topeka’s 2026 budget, city administrators told council members they were considering a hiring freeze.
City Councilwoman Michelle Hoferer asked how the freeze would work, including if the freeze would prevent the city from replacing employees who were retiring.
City manager Robert Perez said such decisions would be his discretion and determined case by case. Perez added that the city has 83 vacancies, with about half of those in the Topeka police and fire departments.
Topeka City Councilman Spencer Duncan said he’d like to cut the local grocery sales tax.
Councilman Spencer Duncan wants to remove city grocery tax
Councilman Spencer Duncan said he would like to have the city consider removing local grocery tax, which he said is estimated to bring in $5 million to $6 million.
“I’d like to have some authority on the local level to put those kind of things in front of our voters to remove some of those taxes,” Duncan said. “But at some point, whether it’s now or a year from now (when) we put out an overall sales tax increase, I’d like it to include the ability to remove the local food sales tax as an offset because sales tax is aggressive, it hits the low income more than anybody and food is an absolute necessity.”
Over the past three years, the state grocery sales tax has decreased from 6.5% to most recently 0%. Many Kansas residents still pay sales tax on groceries because of local taxes.
In Shawnee County, the grocery sales tax is set at 1.35%, and in Topeka, that sales tax is set at an additional 1.5%. There are also several special taxing districts in Topeka that add another 1% or 2% onto the city sales tax depending on what is being purchased.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka City Council covers federal changes, hiring freeze and food tax