Overland Park will budget $200,000 for a property tax rebate pilot program in 2025, but exactly what that program will look like and who will be eligible is unclear.
The Overland Park City Council on Monday voted 6-5 to set aside the funds for the rebate pilot while also sending it back to the Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee to further hash out the criteria for the plan.
Council President Logan Heley as well as councilmembers Melissa Cheatham, Drew Mitrisin, Scott Mosher and Jeff Cox voted no, although for a variety of reasons. Councilmember Sam Passer was absent from the meeting.
Previously, the finance committee voted 4-2 to recommend earmarking the $200,000 for the pilot and any associated administrative fees, but its members stopped short of crafting specific eligibility criteria.
Councilmembers had different reasons for opposition
Of all the councilmembers who voted against the motion to approve the pilot and send it back to the committee, only Councilmember Cox was opposed to the idea of formulating a property tax rebate program at all.
“It’s just kind of too much government to me,” he said. “I just don’t think the whole program needs to happen at all. I think it’s overkill.”
In fact, the majority of the councilmembers who voted against Monday’s motion said they wanted to see the rebate approved but opposed sending it back to the finance committee for more consideration of parameters and criteria.
“I think this is something we can do to meet the needs of those who are struggling in our community, [and] allow folks to stay in their home while still maintaining reliable city services,” Cheatham said.
During the meeting and later on social media, Cheatham, Heley and Mitrisin all reiterated their support for a program to offer relief to taxpayers.
The trio also noted that they did not want to see the terms of the pilot further discussed in committee, instead feeling content to allow city staff to set the parameters for it based on what the committee had already discussed last week.
Mitrisin and Heley also both expressed frustration with the amount of time it had taken to get to this point on a property tax rebate pilot when city councilmembers first broached the subject nearly a year ago. Other councilmembers were dissatisfied with the city council’s overall lack of punctuality in dealing with the issue, as well.
“I think it’s a lame excuse to punt the ball because we’ve had plenty of time to work on it,” Heley said. “I’m just frustrated generally with how this process has happened. I don’t think we handled it well.”
On the other hand, Mosher said he didn’t feel the pilot program “goes far enough,” wanting to see the city put more funds into it.
“What is the pilot program going to prove by doing a quarter of what needs to be done?” Mosher said.
Other councilmembers wanted more deliberation on rebates
The sometimes chaotic debate Monday on the property tax rebate pilot covered a wide range of topics, and there was frequently confusion about what exactly the city council was voting on.
It also at times devolved into philosophical deliberations about whether such a pilot would be a social service and if the city had any business delving into such things.
A narrow majority of the city council — councilmembers Holly Grummert, Richard Borlaza, Jim Kite, Gregg Riess, Inas Younis and Chris Newlin — ultimately decided to approve the earmark for the pilot program while also stipulating that there be actual voted-on criteria, such as who would qualify, to go with it.
“I don’t think that we had the kind of robust discussion that I would have liked to have to feel very comfortable about this,” Younis said.
What might the property tax rebate pilot look like?
The vote on Monday stopped short of approving any specific criteria, and whatever limits are set will have to come out of recommendations from the Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee first. Then, the city council will vote on them.
However, some previously discussed criteria include putting a cap on any rebate at 75% of someone’s total city property tax bill and limiting it to owner-occupied residences that are current on their property taxes.
There would also likely be income limits on who could qualify. The finance committee previously discussed last Wednesday opening the program only to households with a very low income as defined by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.
Some councilmembers have also voiced support for further restricting the pilot to only include residents who are 65 or older and/or disabled veterans, though there wasn’t consensus for such a parameter.
Additionally, any rebate program would most likely operate on a first-come-first-served basis.
Next steps for Overland Park:
- Exactly when the finance committee will make a recommendation about criteria and eligibility for the program is unclear, though it will need to be sooner rather than later.
- That’s because the city council will set the wider 2025 budget and property tax rate later this year.
Looking back: Overland Park in early stages of discussing 2 tax rebate ideas
