A new bill introduced to the House Taxation Committee proposed to further weaken citizens’ right to vote on property tax increases. HB 2424 would add yet another exemption for “increases in employer contributions for social security, workers compensation, unemployment insurance, health-care costs, employee benefit plans and employee retirement and pension programs.” The theory might be that local government can’t help … Read More
City Property Tax Hikes
Property tax history for twelve more cities added to KansasOpenGov.org underscores why so many citizens are upset with property tax hikes. On average, those dozen cites increased property tax 2.6 times faster than the combined rates of inflation and population between 1997 and 2016. The City of Andover had the highest tax increase at 510 percent but the City of … Read More
Local Gov’t. Threatens Citizens over Property Tax Lid
A property tax lid passed last year will allow Kansans to begin voting later this year on whether, with many exceptions, city and county property taxes should increase by more than the rate of inflation. Citizens overwhelming support the right to vote but local government doesn’t want citizens meddling in their business. Cities and counties are asking legislators to strip … Read More
City and County Payroll Provides Property Tax Insight
Newly published city and county payroll listings help explain why property taxes doubled, tripled or even quadrupled over the last nineteen years. Total pay for the nine counties and ten cities published on KansasOpenGov.org exceeds $1 billion, with 756 employees collecting more than $100,000 last year. City and county payroll excludes benefits but does count bonuses and other forms of pay, … Read More
Property Tax Hikes Continue
Double-digit 2016 property tax hikes were not uncommon in Kansas. Department of Revenue data shows 23 counties and 4 of the twenty-five largest cities increased their property tax by 10 percent or more last year. Another 30 counties and 8 large cities increased their property tax between 5 percent and 10 percent. Inflation meanwhile was less than 1 percent for … Read More
2017 Greenbook
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis saw states as “laboratories of democracy” conducting “experiments” in public policy. Today, more than eight decades after Brandeis coined the phrase, state experimentation with tax policy makes it abundantly clear that tax policy has a direct impact on economic growth. As shown on page 27 for the 2017 Greenbook, each of the eleven states … Read More
Most Kansas legislators won’t declare their principles
Lots of declarations are made on the campaign trail and town hall meetings, but when asked to declare their principles on key state budget and education issues, most Kansas legislators wouldn’t respond. Kansas Policy Institute asked all 165 Kansas legislators to respond to a 6-question multiple choice online survey between January 13 and January 30 but only 34 responded; some … Read More
Media’s hypocritical tizzy over fake news
Fake news stories on the presidential election outperformed real news on Facebook according to a story recently published by online news site BuzzFeed and mainstream media, including CBS News, jumped all over it. Even President Obama chimed in, saying that fake news “threatens democracy;” apparently saying “you can keep your doctor if you want” doesn’t count as ‘fake news.’ The Washington … Read More
KC Biz Journal misleads on Johnson County property tax
We routinely see media sharing false information and if it appears to be an innocent mistake, we first give them an opportunity to correct their own mistake. Last month, the Kansas City Business Journal inaccurately stated that Johnson County accounted for 34 percent of the property tax paid in Kansas, with Sedgwick County in second place and paying 17 percent … Read More
Olathe’s real spending increase is higher than explained
The City of Olathe is proposing another big spending increase on pay and benefits, but you’d never know it from media reports. According to the Kansas City Star, the city is only increasing spending by 4 percent, from $325.8 million to $339.3 million, but that isn’t exactly the case. Those figures are inflated by fund transfers, which is just money … Read More