Here’s a snippet from a recent “Yes Wichita” advertisement and mailer. This group campaigns in favor of the one cent per dollar Wichita sales tax that is on the November ballot.
Following is the entire quote from the Wichita Eagle story. I’ve used bold type for the parts that the advertisement used. Everything else was discarded. Do you think it is misleading to leave out the part about how a significant portion of the rate increase will happen regardless of the sales tax vote?
“Without the sales tax, water rates would have to increase 32 percent over the next four years to pay for expansion at the city’s Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) facility northwest of Wichita. That would set the rates high enough so the city could start making bond payments in 2018, Public Works and Utilities Director Alan King said.
That increase would be on top of projected water rate increases totaling nearly 20 percent over the next four years to meet regular maintenance needs of the existing infrastructure.
So the total rate increase for the water base charge would be nearly 52 percent by 2018.”
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