If Fairway and Mission Hills approve their proposed 2023 budgets, many homeowners in both cities should expect to see slight increases in their property taxes.
What’s going on? Both cities’ councils this month unanimously approved measures stating the cities’ intentions to exceed the so-called “revenue neutral rate” for next year’s budgets by holding their property tax mill levy rates steady from last year.
- The councils have both set public hearings for Sept. 12 on that issue and on their 2023 budgets more broadly.
What’s the revenue neutral rate? It’s the tax rate that would generate the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year.
- If assessed property values rise — as they have been doing in recent years throughout Johnson County — more revenue is generated from the same mill levy rate.
- A Kansas law that became effective this year requires cities whose budgets call for exceeding the revenue neutral rate to notify the county clerk, give ample notice to residents and hold a public hearing.
Fairway details: To remain revenue neutral in 2023, the city would have to decrease its current mill levy rate from 19.928 to 18.281 mills.
- Fairway City Administrator Nathan Nogelmeier told the Shawnee Mission Post the city chose to exceed the revenue neutral rate by keeping its mill levy rate the same in order to increase funding for capital projects, which are expected to average $1 million a year from 2023 through 2027.
- The city’s preliminary budget for 2023 is $7.3 million, up from $6.6 million for the current fiscal year.
Mission Hills details: Mission Hills would have to lower its mill levy from its current 22.763 mills to 21.645 mills to remain revenue neutral, City Administrator Jennifer Lee told the Post.
- The city expects exceeding the revenue neutral rate in 2023 would generate about 4.6% more revenue, or about $200,000, than the previous year.
- Lee said the Mission Hills council decided to exceed the revenue neutral rate to maintain property values and “continue to provide the excellent services residents expect.” The city expects overall revenue to increase 1.5% but expenses to increase nearly 5% in 2023.
- The city’s preliminary budget for 2023 is just over $8.8 million, down from nearly $9.7 million in the current fiscal year, Lee said, including a $3 million capital improvement project to upgrade Tomahawk Road.
What to expect: Residents in these cities and other Johnson County cities will receive property tax notices from the county via mail in early August.
Jerry LaMartina is a freelance journalist who contributes frequently to the Shawnee Mission Post and other Kansas City-area publications. He can be reached at lamartina.jerry@gmail.com.
