County officials lament passing of tax lid bill

A new tax lid on county and city spending will take effect sooner than originally  planned after Kansas lawmakers passed House Bill 2088 last week before wrapping up the 2016 legislative session. 

The Jackson County Commissioners and Jackson County Clerk Kathy Mick say the new law will force the county to go into debt in order to cover road and equipment expenses or unexpected insurance hikes and will not allow them to save funds for larger necessary purchases in the future.

House Bill 2088 passed the Kansas House with 112 ‘yes’ votes and five ‘no’ votes on Friday, April 29. Rep. Becky Hutchins (R-Holton) voted in favor of the bill despite the county commissioners expressing their concern to her the previous week. The bill was worked in committee and was not debated on the House floor, Hutchins told commissioners.

The bill also passed the Senate with 37 ‘yes’ votes and three ‘no’ votes. Sen. Dennis Pyle (R-Hiawatha) voted in favor of the bill.

Gov. Sam Brownback is expected to sign the bill into law soon.

In his State of the State speech this year, Brownback asked the Legislature to move up the date on the original tax bill.

Brownback said that since 1999, when the previous property tax lid was lifted, Kansans have seen tax rates increase by 24 percent, and property tax revenue increase by 92 percent.

According to the new law, as of Jan. 1, 2017, county and city governments will not be able to levy property tax dollars beyond the government-declared rate of inflation without voter approval.

“This is insanity,” said County Commission Chairman Janet Zwonitzer. “Our hands are our tied with this tax lid.”

Besides accelerating the property tax lid law passed last year, which was originally set to take effect Jan. 1, 2018, the new bill also includes a number of exemptions that lawmakers believe will allow cities and counties to increase property tax revenues without voter approval for a number of reasons.

Some of the exemptions include:

• Expenses relating to federal, state of local disaster or emergencies declared by a federal or state officials.

• Expenditures used exclusively for increase law enforcement, fire protection or emergency medical services.

• Expenditures specifically mandated by federal or state law.

The commissioners and Jackson County Clerk Kathy Mick were unsure about all the specifics of the exemptions listed in the bill and were expected to learn more about the bill at the Kansas Association of Counties conference set for this past week in Manhattan.

Lawmakers say the bill gives the public more authority to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for tax increases, while the commissioners say they were elected to do their jobs, and if they weren’t, the public is smart enough to vote them out of office.

If the tax lid had been put in place last year, the county could have only raised its budget by $117,130, according to Mick. 

Each year, the county also amends its working budget when additional unforeseen revenues, not tax dollars, are collected by the county. If additional funds are not budgeted for, they cannot be spent or saved by the department heads.

“The budget is an estimate when we do it,” Mick said. “It’s the closest estimate that we come up with at the time.”

If additional funds are needed to purchase road rock and equipment or to increase employee salaries, a public vote would have to be held since funding for those items would be unable to be budgeted for in the smaller budget, the commissioners said.

“I don’t want to pay higher taxes either, but this going to cause our taxes to go up more,” Mick said.

Mick said it will be difficult to meet the election and budgetary deadlines set by the state now that this bill has passed.

Mick said if the county would try to get a property tax question on an August ballot, the county would have to move its budgetary process up by two months. The public could also vote for a property tax increase through a mail-in election, which Mick estimated would cost the county $20,000 each election.