Office of the City Manager
Mayor Frese and Members of the Tonganoxie City Council: It is my pleasure to present the City of Tonganoxie 2025 Adopted Budget, which was approved by the City Council on September 3, 2024 by a vote of 5-0. The Adopted Budget communicates the City’s immediate and long-term plan for continuing to deliver high-quality city services at a reasonable cost to Tonganoxie residents and visitors. Also, on September 3, 2024, but prior to the Budget Adoption, the City Council adhered to K.S.A. 79-2988, which also required public notice for a public hearing to consider exceeding the Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR), which would allow jurisdictions to levy more revenue from property tax than the year before. On a 5-0 vote, the City Council voted to exceed the RNR and adopted Resolution 09-24-01 indicating such intent. The adopted budget increases the total City property tax rate by 0.062 mills (0 change for City levies and +0.062 for the City Library levies) compared to the current year mill levies. This change follows a 4-mill reduction approved in 2023 for the 2024 budget year. Strong Commercial and Residential Development Activity There is continued activity within the Tonganoxie Business Park. We were happy to see Hill’s Pet Nutrition facility appraised by the Leavenworth County Appraisers Office with a value of $88.9M, which resulted in an additional $20M+ of assessed valuation for USD 464’s capital outlay mills. In addition, the City was able to negotiate a 10 year Fixed Payment-in-lieu-of taxes (PILOT) with Hill’s, which allows each taxing jurisdiction within the City of Tonganoxie Tax District to get annual payments distributed from that PILOT. Finally, Hill’s has become a significant water user for the City’s water supply, resulting in increased utility revenues. We are also excited to see the new DSM-Firmenich facility is nearing completion. This $47M investment for an approximate 54,000 sqft building has completed the building’s outer shell and is on track for a targeted Q3 2025 opening. Unilock, the Business Park’s first tenant, began the planning process for the construction of a 56,000 sqft manufacturing plant, with a connector building addition of the existing Sales Office. Outside of the Tonganoxie Business Park, there is continued activity near the Urban Hess Business Park and Polished and Decorative Concrete completed construction and opened a 20,000 sqft facility. This is another example of a local business owner expanding their company’s footprint locally, and this project joins Industrial Services Technology, Wilson Glass and DL Granite in doing such. Additionally, late in the year City staff worked to foster a sale of two lots in Urban Hess by the Leavenworth County Port Authority to Croucher & Associates, LLC for the construction of a 50,000 sqft warehouse. We’ve seen growth in our residential development as well, including strong performance in our newer multi-family projects and was highlighted by the private sale of the West Village Apartments and Townhomes project. We also continued strong growth by seeing additional phases of single-family development in Stone Creek with the Rausch Coleman’s proposal for 142 new single-family homes in the Stone Creek Development area, representing an approximate $58M Capital Investment. Issuing 31 building permits prior to year-end.
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