We CAN Lower Property Taxes!!
The Republican Party of Kansas is largely responsible for our rising property taxes. And you can’t convince me otherwise.
The GOP has controlled both chambers of the legislature since 1993. (When Bill Clinton was inaugurated!) And in that 29-year period, Kansas Republicans controlled the trifecta for 16 years.
In other words, the “Party of No Taxes” has had unilateral power to reduce property tax burdens on both local governments and households – but they have chosen NOT TO.
Did you know that Kansas has been sitting on property tax relief for the last twenty years?
Yeah, this is news to me - and even when googling this topic in the news, it seems to be a relic of the past that no longer casts a shadow of existence in today’s world.
And ssshhh…You hear that? That’s the sound of silence from the Republican Party, looking awkwardly away, devising a moral crisis to mislead us away from what our focus should be on.
We talk a lot about taxes. Never in terms of endearment. And here in Manhattan, our property taxes are going up 7.4%, and yet it’s still not enough to keep our Parks and Rec department afloat. Meanwhile, we’re pointing our finger at Home Depot for trying to skirt its tax obligations by triggering the dark store theory.
And you know what? While we’re distracted by all these issues, what we don’t even realize is what’s in plain sight, broad daylight. Over time, the state of Kansas has been quietly sitting on a few billion dollars earmarked for counties and municipalities specifically for property tax relief.
Have you heard of the LAVTRF? Ok, I’ll help you out with that acronym. It stands for Local Ad Valorem Tax Relief Fund.
Still fuzzy on what that means? Yeah, it’s ok - I was too.
Those letters are the key to reduce every Kansas property owner’s property taxes. Perhaps you’re new to Kansas and didn’t know of this fund. Perhaps it’s because it’s been so long (20 years!) since you’ve heard those letters that they fell out of your memory altogether.
The state of Kansas is required by statute to take 3.63% of the state’s sales tax revenues and transfer those monies into this fund for the purpose of aiding counties and municipalities.
The floor of this bucket of money is set at $54 million dollars. In other words, the state must hand out a minimum of $54 million, spread out to local governments based on population and assessed valuation. But given there’ve been zero distributions in 20 years, the state has effectively accumulated a few billion dollars of money that should have been lowering property taxes.
I was able to talk to Chris Courtwright, former Principal Economist for the state legislature and now a member of the Governor’s Council on Tax Reform, to flush out the meaning of all this.
“Local units of government have been fighting for 20 years to get 10 cents for a cup of coffee,” he told me, noting that since 2019 the tax council has repeatedly recommended restoration of the LAVTRF program.
“Policymakers most certainly have not lived up to the original statutory obligations,” Courtwright added.
The governor and legislature initially suspended the funding the property tax relief fund in 2002 because the state was strapped for cash due to the recession that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
And in every subsequent year, the funding of the LAVTRF just got, well, overlooked. Each year, the Republican-controlled legislature would pass a budget without that line item, failing to provide local units with much needed property tax relief - funding that we all deserve coming back to our communities since we all pay sales tax.
Per the statute, local entities are required to use the funding to reduce mill levies on properties.
“This was a priority issue for the Tax Council,” said Courtwright. “Property taxes are the workhorse of local finance, the bread and butter of local budgets.”
The state finished FY 2022 hundreds of millions of dollars ahead of revenue expectations; and is already well ahead of the FY 2023 forecast.
“Right now, we’re swimming in money. This could – and frankly should - be one of the very first dominoes to fall,” he added, referring to the tax council’s recommendations on state tax reform.
Here’s the bottom line, folks. Don’t let the GOP-controlled legislature get away with this ongoing sweeping of our property tax relief dollars. Don’t let any elected Republican backpedal as to why restoration of this program never seems to be on the table when property taxes are discussed in Topeka. They’ve had full control for nearly three decades now, and their incompetence or malfeasance –take your pick– is inexcusable.