You pay the half-cent at the register, anywhere in Shawnee County.

The countywide half-cent, in plain English

If you buy something in Shawnee County, you pay it. Topeka, Auburn, Silver Lake, Rossville, and the country roads. It is one half of one percent. It is not the city’s one-cent tax. It is not the city’s separate half-cent for street maintenance. Those are different taxes. This one is the county’s.

Voters created it in steps.

• November 7, 2000: a quarter-cent, for economic development.
• 2004: that quarter-cent was replaced by a half-cent, starting January 1, 2005, for economic development and named road and bridge work.
• November 4, 2014: voters extended the half-cent for fifteen years. It runs from January 1, 2017, through December 31, 2031. The campaign was “Vote Roads. Vote Jobs. Vote Zoo.”

Where the money goes before anybody spends it

The state collects the tax. Kansas law then divides a countywide sales tax between the county and the cities inside it. Topeka and Shawnee County signed an interlocal agreement that puts those shares back together for the uses on the ballot.

That pile is not one check to one office. The 2016 agreement split it:

• $5 million a year for economic development, $75 million over the fifteen years
• $45 million for the Expocentre
• $32.5 million for bridges outside the city
• $10 million for the Topeka Zoo
• $3.5 million for the bikeways plan
• and the named street projects

What JEDO is

JEDO is the Joint Economic Development Organization. It is not a company. It is a board the city and the county created in 2001 to watch this money.

Seven people vote: the three county commissioners, the mayor, the deputy mayor, and two city council members. The other six council members sit in the room and do not vote. Auburn, Silver Lake, and Rossville pay the tax. They do not get a seat.

JEDO’s own page says the half-cent is for economic development. That sentence is incomplete. Economic development is one slice. Roads, bridges, the zoo, the Expocentre, and the bikeways are the rest.

What GO Topeka is

GO Topeka does not levy the tax. GO Topeka does not sit on the ballot. GO Topeka is a private nonprofit, tied to the Greater Topeka Partnership and the Chamber. JEDO hires it to spend the economic-development slice.

The agreement people were shown set that slice at $5 million a year. GO Topeka’s own 2024 budget then booked $10,985,862 as “Economic Development Sales Tax,” and labeled that about 16 percent of the countywide half-cent. That is the allotment. Incentives, salaries, marketing, and the grants and sponsorships come out of that check, not out of a separate charity fund.

The path of one dollar

1. You pay the half-cent at the register, anywhere in Shawnee County.
2. The state collects it and divides it between the county and the cities.
3. The interlocal agreement pulls the program money under JEDO.
4. JEDO keeps the road, bridge, zoo, and Expocentre money on those projects.
5. JEDO pays GO Topeka the economic-development allotment.
6. GO Topeka writes the checks.

The voter approved the tax. The elected board holds it. The private contractor spends the jobs slice. Those are three different steps. A banquet check is written at step six, with money that left your receipt at step one.