By NICK SLOAN, nick@kansascitykansan.com
KANSAS CITY, KAN. ----- One thing is for certain about the 2015 budget - Unified Government Commissioners will not have a shortage of items to choose from.
Community groups had until February 20 to apply for budget requests for 2015.
One week after the deadline, it's now known how many groups requested what. Over $5 million worth of budget requests were made, filling a nearly 300-page notebook given out to commissioners at Thursday night's meeting.
The requests come just over a week before a budget workshop meeting that will be held from 7:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 8.
Unified Government Mayor/CEO Mark Holland said he hopes funding decisions are made before the summer.
"I would like to have these decisions made sooner or later," he said. "Our goal is to not have a lot of moving parts during the summer budget phase."
Budget priorities for 2015 will be set by March 20. Before that date, UG commissioners will hold a number of meetings. They will have a presentation about public safety funding on March 13 at 5 p.m .
On March 6, two days before the March 8 workshop, commissioners will meet with representatives from Moody's, a credit rating organization.
Commissioner Ann Murguia said her decisions will come based off a public survey that will be administered by the Unified Government.
"What will drive my decisions is what the people think," she said.
Commissioner Mike Kane said that it's likely not all of the items would be funded due to constraints.
"There's no pot of gold," Kane said. "We want to do as much as we can."
