A House committee heard testimony this week regarding a bill that would place a cap on the amount of property taxes an entity could raise without voter approval.
The House Taxation Committee discussed HB 2630, which proponents say would stabilize taxes for taxpayers and still give government predictable streams of revenue for providing essential services.
“Kansans want more government accountability in the property tax system. Runaway property taxes in our state have put a financial squeeze on home and business owners,” said State Rep. Joe Patton, R-Topeka, a co-sponsor of the bill. “With property taxes going up nearly every year, many are being forced to sell their homes, close their businesses or do without essentials to pay the taxes. We need to change the system to protect their homes, businesses and way of life.”
Patton said that, during the last 11 years, property taxes in Kansas have increased 92 percent, nearly triple the rate of inflation, which is 31 percent.
In Crawford County, Treasurer Joe Grisolano said that personal property taxes went from $3.5 million to just under $2 million from 2005 to 2009, which is a 43.6 percent decrease.
“This bill would make it very difficult for any governing body to provide services as time goes on,” Grisolano said.
In the city of Pittsburg, director of finance John Garrison said that the city has continued to hold down taxes. He said even with the valuation down in 2009, Pittsburg City Commissioners elected to hold the mill levy instead of increasing it to raise additional dollars.
“We've tried to hold down property taxes and we levied close to $300,000 less in those taxes,” Garrison said. “It would be a hardship, but we would find it easier to absorb it than maybe some of the other entities.”
Even school districts would not be absolved if the new measure were to clear the House and Senate.
USD 248 Superintendent Gary Snawder said that even when economic times are tough, government and schools still have to provide services and this legislation could hamper that notion.
“I am not in favor of increasing taxes, but at the same time we need to have money to operate,” Snawder said. “It smells to me like anti-public schools, but we have an obligation to take care of our community and we try to do that as efficiently as we can.”
Garrison did point out an issue with the bill that may have been overlooked by lawmakers.
“We get assessed values from the county by July 1 of each year and the latest an entity has to have its budget set is Aug. 15,” Garrison said. “We don't have enough time to determine if we need to have an election to levy more money.”
Patton said that elected leaders that use appraised value increases to increase their entities’ tax revenues need to be held accountable for growing their governments’ budget. But, Grisolano said that measure is already in place.
“The public elects people that they put their trust in to levy the tax dollars they think serve their population the best,” Grisolano said. “There has to be a budget hearing every year before the mill levy is set and they have the avenue to go to those hearings.”
The committee took no action on the bill.
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140
