Budget Explorer · City of Wichita

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Wichita, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Dec 31, 2023. City of Wichita's own 2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 396K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$836M

$2,109 per resident

Total spending

$937M

$2,365 per resident

Spending per resident

$2,365

18th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$1.43B

$3,617 per resident · 45th percentile of 70

Own-source share

78%

40th percentile of 71

Capital share

40%

98th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$836M total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$160M19%
General sales tax$83M10%
Selective sales taxes$69M8%
License & other taxes$2.4M0%
State & local aid$155M18%
Charges & fees$164M20%
Interest, fines, other$71M9%
Utility revenue$132M16%

Own-source share of general revenue 78% · federal aid 0% · property tax is 51% of taxes

Where it goes

$937M total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Utilities (water, power, gas)$281M30%
Public safety$182M19%
Transportation$135M14%
General government$121M13%
Environment & housing$76M8%
Culture & recreation$56M6%
Interest on debt$46M5%
Health & hospitals$40M4%
Public welfare$222K0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$53M	$228M	$281M
Police protection	Public safety	$119M	$43K	$119M
General (unallocable)	General government	$31M	$61M	$93M
Highways	Transportation	$35M	$39M	$74M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$46M	$26M	$73M
Fire protection	Public safety	$63M	—	$63M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$40M	$5.1M	$45M
Air transportation	Transportation	$27M	$16M	$43M
Health	Health & hospitals	$40M	—	$40M
Transit	Transportation	$15M	$1.4M	$16M
Libraries	Culture & recreation	$11M	—	$11M
Judicial & legal	General government	$11M	—	$11M
Central staff services	General government	$6.6M	—	$6.6M
Financial administration	General government	$6.4M	—	$6.4M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+32% over 2 yrs

$631M → $836M

Spending

+90% over 2 yrs

$494M → $937M

Debt outstanding

+33% over 2 yrs

$1.08B → $1.43B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Wichita	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$2,365	$3,741	18th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$2,109	$3,548	8th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$793	$1,328	13th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$3,617	$3,865	45th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	78%	81%	40th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	0%	7%	4th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	40%	18%	98th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	5%	4%	65th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	1.71×	1.05×	82nd	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 202173201810 (Wichita City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · 2026

City of Wichita's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 18 departments.

$1.10B total

Public Works & Utilities$300M27%
Finance$207M19%
Non-Departmental$165M15%
Police$143M13%
Fire$78M7%
Housing & Community Services$41M4%
Airport$39M4%
Parks & Recreation$31M3%
Transit$21M2%
Information Technology$19M2%
City Manager's Office$19M2%
Library$13M1%
All other (6)$28M3%

Parsed from the published budget book's department-by-fund matrix (pages 68-69), which prints departments as columns; each department's figure is its all-funds total row.
Printed in thousands of dollars; the departments sum to within $1,000 of the printed total, a rounding difference the book itself notes.
This is the gross figure. It includes the pension trust ($120.5M) and grants ($56.4M), and counts transfers between funds; the book's net annual budget is $776,583,990.
Finance includes the pension and self-insurance funds.
Wichita's council adopted a 2027 budget in August 2026, but only proposed documents had been posted when this was captured.
Source: 2026 Adopted Budget, Financial Summaries (Expenditures by Department and Fund) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-13. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Wichita's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Wichita capacity assessment.