Junction City’s debt was a large focus of Tuesday nights State of the City Address by the city’s new Manager, Gerald Smith.

Tom Weigand, Junction City area Chamber of Commerce CEO, said there wasn’t really any surprises about the city’s debt. But he did have a concern that the city was compared to larger cities such as Overland Park, Olathe and the Kansas City area.

“Maybe if we would have been compared to Manhattan, Salina, Great Bend, El Dorado, Newton or something like that we could relate to that more. So I think we need to look at those numbers a little more,” Weigand said.

Weigand also mentioned that Smith’s Address could be interpreted as anti-business.

“I know what he was meaning, maybe we need to pick up the load and maybe we do, maybe we have given incentives in the past that could be questioned,” Weigand talking about the Chamber and the Economic Development Commission.

Weigand explained that was the past, “that was previous administrations and so we need to deal with the future.”

Looking to the future Weigand said that we already know that the city needs infrastructure and street improvements but where do we get the money?

“We never address that our sales tax is rising every year. That we do have NRP coming on every year coming off of the rebates every year, that does amount to several $100,000 every year.”

Weigand said that the Chamber wants to take a lead role in addressing the issues,”helping the city make decisions as to what path we chart going forward to provide the services that the average tax payer and citizen does expect.”

Smith also proposed in his address that the city take a larger role in the EDC and hire a City Planner that a EDC professional would work under.

Weigand said that he does have some problems with that because he believes that those can conflict each other at times.

“That Planning Director has the plan of where he would like to be but we deal with companies that come to town and they know already where they want to be. We have to facilitate that negotiation and I think that we need to have an arms length from the City.”

He did explain that they still need a good relationship with the city and that there is no better partner than the city and the county,”but there’s still a little arms length to were people can approach the economic development person before they get into the rules, regulation, and the bureaucracy of the city. So we need to work through that.”

Another proposal by Smith was a business licensing fee based on a series of criteria.

“Anytime you add fees, it’s called a fee but it’s an expense, it’s a tax, it’s a cost of doing business, some can pass it on some can absorb. Small businesses who are operating on a very, very narrow margin or even are not paying themselves presently will have a challenge of meeting those fees, whatever they are,” Weigand said.

Smith did not say what those fee’s would amount to and that is one thing Weigand would like to find out soon. Weigand did say that the Chamber has already received phone calls from business owners that are concerned about the fee.

“One of them stated that even if it’s $250, I’ve got to close because I’m there, but we don’t know what it is and we haven’t had any indication on that.”

The proposals Smith made are just that, proposals. Final action would come down to a vote by the City Commission and no action has been taken by the Commission at this time.