The Shawnee City Council last week adopted its 2024 budget and agreed that the city will take in more revenue next year than it did this year.
Without much debate, the city council unanimously agreed to exceed the revenue neutral rate and passed the city budget with a 7-1 vote, with Councilmember Jill Chalfie in dissent.
The estimated mill levy for the 2024 budget is 23.047 and would generate property taxes of about $30.7 million. It is a reduction of 1.0 mill from the 2023 mill levy rate, according to city documents.
Chalfie said she voted against adopting the budget because she opposed setting the mill levy. City staff earlier this year recommended a flat property tax rate for 2024, while most of the city council proposed another rate cut.
What do “mills” actually mean?
• One mill is equivalent to $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
• Assessed property values are 11.5% of appraised, or market, values for residential properties. (So, a home appraised at $300,000 has an assessed value of $34,500.)
• So, divide your home’s assessed value by $1,000 and multiply that by a taxing jurisdiction’s mill rate to figure out how much in annual property taxes you will owe for that jurisdiction’s share of your annual tax bill.
Average Shawnee home will owe $65 more in taxes this year
A city’s property tax rate, called the mill levy rate, decides how much a property owner owes in taxes to the city based on their property’s assessed value.
In Shawnee, the average home value is $382,700, up about 11% from last year.
To calculate what your actual property tax bill to the city would be if this rate is approved, you’d multiply the assessed value of your home by .115 (the residential assessment rate).
Then, you’d take that number, divide it by 1,000 and multiply the result by the proposed property tax rate of 23.047.
For the average home in Shawnee, that would mean about $1,014 in property taxes owed to the city. For comparison, the average Shawnee homeowner paid about $949 in property tax to the city last year.
What is the revenue neutral rate?
The revenue neutral rate is the tax rate that generates the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous budget year using the current-year assessed valuation.
A Kansas law passed in 2021 requires taxing jurisdictions like Shawnee to host public hearings if they plan to exceed their revenue neutral rate by bringing in more in tax revenue than the previous year. Shawnee expects to
Exceeding the revenue neutral rate allows the city to take in more revenue than it did the previous year.
The move is a slight decrease in cuts for city council, which approved a two-mill decrease to its property tax rate in 2023.
The budget covers six new full-time positions
The city council approved a 2024 budget that allows about $113.5 million in expenditures, an ending balance of just under $67 million, and a total budget authority of about $180.5 million.
The budget includes six additional full-time positions, including three firefighters, one ALS coordinator, one building inspector and one facilities specialist. Non-personnel costs are slated to remain relatively flat.
One resident urges for more tax cuts
During public comment for the revenue neutral rate, Shawnee resident Kris Durbin criticized the city council on the mill levy reduction.
“To me, that seems like a cookie. Like, ‘Here you go. We’re going to give you one mill.’ That way, you can go on the campaign trail and say ‘I reduced your taxes.’ When in reality, you’re raising our taxes,” he said.
Durbin said his mill levy rate has gone down 3.2 mills since buying his house more than a decade ago.
“But guess what? My taxes have doubled in that period of time,” he said. “(The revenue neutral rate) is a lie.”
Durbin asked the city council to go for the revenue neutral rate or less.
City councilmembers defend budget
City Councilmember Eric Jenkins took issue with the criticism, citing the city’s growth and rising expenses like health insurance.
“Our costs are going up and that number, if it stays revenue neutral, we’re actually going backwards,” he said.
Councilmember Mike Kemmling agreed.
“I really do think that’s a mischaracterization to call us lowering the mill levy a lie, as far as a tax reduction. I really do think it’s a tax reduction,” he said. “We’re lowering the rate that we can, and I think our citizens are benefiting from it.”
Go deeper: Click here to read more about Shawnee’s 2024 budget in city documents, starting on page 186.
