Transient Guest Tax Committee Meeting November 4, 2026

The City of Topeka Transient Guest Tax Committee met November 4, 2026, to review funding requests and recommend next year’s allocations. The committee approved a $40,000 administrative allocation and $100,000 to make prior project commitments whole. It also approved annual funding increases for Arts Connect ($35,000, up from $30,000), TAC ($165,000, up from $150,000), and NOTO ($55,000, up from $50,000). Additional recommendations included $40,000 for TAC lighting equipment, $40,000 for NOTO cultural programming, and $40,000 for Arts Connect visitor-facing public art. These allocations are recommendations for City Council consideration, expected in December; Council may revise them.

For larger requests, the committee recommended $70,000 toward the Downtown Topeka Foundation’s $141,743 request for an ice-rink structural change order and roof-support design, rather than the full amount. The committee left the Greater Topeka Parks Partnership’s $130,000 monument-sign request and Arts Connect’s separate $15,000 policy-development request unfunded, and did not allocate the Jayhawk Theatre’s $390,000 request. It reserved the remaining $115,000 for a future committee. Members also received an update on a planned ticketed Boris Karloff/Frankenstein experience at the Harley building, targeted to open in late August; presenters said it was not part of the current funding requests. The latest transient guest tax report was slightly above projections.