Property taxes likely going up again for Sedgwick County homeowners
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Property valuations in Sedgwick County are rising again. Six in 10 homes will see their values go up this year. With that comes the likelihood of higher property taxes.
Local and state lawmakers are looking for ways to give homeowners relief. The question is: How should the state provide that relief?
Just this week, the Kansas legislature was unable to override the governor’s veto on the larger so-called “Flat Tax” bill. It would’ve included a measure to make it so homeowners don’t have to pay property tax for the statewide school levy on the first $100,000 of their homes’ value.
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“From what I can tell, we have universal agreement that needs to be done,” said Kansas House Minority Leader Rep. Vic Miller, D-Topeka.
The measure was roped in with other, more controversial taxation reforms. House lawmakers were unable to override Governor Laura Kelly’s veto.
Miller said there are three other bills he’s endorsing in the house that target property tax relief. They are HB 2520, HB 2508 and HCR 5021.
“They have bipartisan support,” Miller said. “How likely they are to be passed remains to be seen.”
Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell questioned the efficacy of those measures. Specifically, one which would lower the assessment rate for homes, in turn lowering property valuations.
“It would, in fact, lower the tax burden for residential, but the budgets aren’t going down,” Howell said.
Howell said farmers and businesses would have to pick up the slack and pay more property taxes. He said what commissioners in Sedgwick County and statewide are asking for is for the state to fund certain tax programs that funnel money down to municipalities.
“The one reason that property taxes are going up is because other sources of revenue have been defunded in Kansas, so we’re advocating that they would actually start to fund those programs again,” Howell said.
He said the county has no control over how high or low properties are valued, and the county appraiser is appointed by the state. The one way the county and other smaller cities within it could lower property taxes is by tightening their budgets independently.
Essentially, property taxes are calculated with a predetermined formula that takes into account property valuations and how much the budget is for a specific year in a given municipality. He said the strategy of cutting the budget doesn’t make sense because the county would have to cut a lot of budget for little payoff.
If the county were to cut $6.6 million out of its $200 million property tax budget, a homeowner with a $100,000 house would only save $11 a year, according to Howell.
“We’re at the point in Sedgwick County right now — I don’t really think we can cut millions of dollars out of our budget,” Howell said. “We just really don’t have any place to go to get that kind of cut out of — in our budget.”
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Now, if your property’s value has changed this year, notifications will be mailed out next month.
He said the county’s budget is lean already. To cut down the budget would mean cutting down funding for things like the county jail, EMS, tornado sirens and other essential services.
What he wants is for the state to once again fund certain tax programs that would funnel money down to municipalities like Sedgwick County.
As for those property valuations, the county said increases were spread evenly across the county.
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