A group of Lawrence residents has submitted a formal petition objecting to the City of Lawrence’s proposed 2025 budget, claiming “fiscal mismanagement, lack of transparency and questionable priorities.”
One of the petition organizers is Matt Huckleby, the Lawrence Township Republican Party chair. In a phone interview, he said some of the petitioners became concerned about the city’s finances when issues were raised during recent Lawrence Common Council meetings.
“A group of us, sort of collectively, started paying a little closer attention to some of this stuff,” he said. “And we were really, really concerned — just the lack of transparency in the financial process.”
He said they drafted the petition soon after a Sept. 18 public hearing on the 2025 budget, which was added to the Common Council agenda on Sept. 17. The petition states the city didn’t provide adequate notice to residents and that details about the budget itself weren’t publicly available until after the public hearing.
Huckleby said the city appears to have followed the letter of the law by posting the hearing and state-required budget information on the state Gateway portal.
“But you know, we’ve had a long history in Lawrence of of mayors who have gone above and beyond that and produce very clear budget books that are released publicly well in advance of any public engagement, public forum, to give citizens and taxpayers an opportunity to look into what’s there and make assessments about, is this the right thing for the future of our city and then, if not, to weigh in appropriately,” he said.
The petitioners also object to budgeted expenses for the mayor’s office in 2025, which total $1.3 million — a $632,000 increase over 2024. The increase includes additional salary and travel costs. Huckleby said petitioners also are concerned about some expenses that appear to have been removed, including fuel costs for police vehicles.
“It may very well be that they’re planning to pay that out of different funds,” he said. “But that’s just not transparent and it feels to me like moving numbers around to make an unbalanced budget appear to be balanced.”
Another objection in the petition is an apparent increase in Lawrence property tax rates. Huckleby shared documents that show the city’s tax rate in 2024 has been .6988 cents per $100 assessed value and the submitted 2025 budget calls for a rate of .8058.
Huckleby said he and other petitioners would like city officials to take a closer look at the proposed budget, be transparent in the process and make adjustments to reduce costs.
“Frankly, I don’t believe that the mayor’s office needs to have a $300,000 increase in salaries for staff and, I think it was $74,000 for consultants,” he said. “It’s just unheard of. I would hope that the council would take a good hard look at the numbers there and ask some tough questions and come to a resolution that’s fair and reasonable and allows the city to do their job, but in a way that is fiscally responsible and is appropriate for the taxpayers of Lawrence.”
The budget timeline is tight, and Huckleby agreed it would be a challenge, but he said if the council is willing to do the work it could make the changes by the Nov. 1 deadline.
In response to a request for comment, Mayor Deb Whitfield’s office provided the following statement via email: “Mayor Whitfield received the taxpayer petition Wednesday afternoon (Sept. 25) and is looking into the concerns raised. The administration stands ready to provide all necessary information to the Lawrence Common Council in response to the petition.”
For a detailed look at the 2025 proposed budget, visit cityoflawrence.org/financial/2025/2025-proposed-budget.
