Kansas has no law to protect taxpayers from large, unnecessary tax increases. That hasn’t always been the case; Kansas did have ‘tax lids’ that expired in the mid-1990s. But taxes exploded once the lid was lifted. In fact, property taxes increased 92% between 1997 and 2008, triple the rate of inflation1 (31%) and 11.5 times greater than the population increase2 (8%). During that time, Residential collections increased 130% and tax collections on Commercial & Industrial property increased 127%.
It’s not surprising, then, that Kansans overwhelmingly support property tax reform, as amply demonstrated by the public opinion poll we commissioned and the unprompted verbatim comments from survey participants.
Kansas Policy Institute began the search for a solution to the property tax problem in 2008 and our research was the impetus for new legislation proposed in the 2009 session. The House Committee on Taxation held several hearings, concluding that reform was needed and recommended that the legislation be referred to an Interim Committee for further study over the summer of 2009. Tight budgets prevented the State from empanelling Interim committees on Taxation and most other topics, so Kansas Policy Institute conducted its own interim study.
We invited 20 participants each from government and the private sector to serve on an advisory panel, including elected officials, government and private appraisers, residential and commercial realtors, a real estate attorney, school district officials, private developers and academic experts. Approximately half of those invited participated. We met several times over the summer and participants’ input weighed heavily on our decision to craft an entirely new proposal that effectively reinstates a property tax ‘lid’ that limits tax growth without voter approval while providing government with a guaranteed annual tax increase from the value of new taxable construction.
Please review the key elements of this new proposal and let us know what you think. Also, whether you agree or disagree with our proposal, please share your thoughts with your legislators. You can find contact information for your legislators or access an interactive map to find your legislator at these links.
Kansas House contacts: http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-house/index.do
Kansas Senate contacts: http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-senate/index.do
Find Your Legislator: http://koufax.kgs.ku.edu/demograph/ims/myelect.cfm%20
1Midwest Urban Consumer Price Index, not seasonally adjusted.
2U.S. Census Bureau