Junction City officials want to keep the property tax levy flat for 2017, but the city commission heard the information Tuesday evening in a budget work session, that the sales tax revenues for the general fund are flat right now.

That is a major revenue source for the City, yet proposed expenses would go up.

The impact of troop reductions and deployments from Fort Riley were noted as part of the sales tax concern. Mayor Mick McCallister said they have to look into a crystal ball with some of their decisions. “Because not only in Junction City but statewide sales tax is down and that’s what funds our debt. So it starts to make us a little bit nervous. If we have to pull from other departments to pay for that debt then we have to look at that. I’m not sure, boots on the ground how many soldiers we’re going to have here but we are going to have soldiers deployed. And hopefully the families will stay like they have the last several deployments.”

The City Commission have a series of budget work sessions in June and July.