The Prairie Village City Council last week approved its 2025 budget — but not before some councilmembers called for the city to make additional cuts.
Last week, the city council voted 9-2 to approve its 2025 budget. The budget includes nearly $32 million in overall general fund expenditures, which reflects a 1.3% increase over the 2024 budget, according to city documents.
Councilmember Lori Sharp — who called on the city to “sharpen our pencils” and cut the budget by $610,000 to keep it flat from the 2024 budget — and Councilmember Nick Reddell cast the dissenting votes. Councilmember Tyler Agniel was absent.
For 2025, the city of Prairie Village plans to hold the mill levy rate flat at 18.325 mills. However, because property values are on the rise, homeowners will end up paying more in taxes, and the city will go above its revenue neutral rate by bringing in more money than it’s on track to bring in this year.
The revenue neutral rate is “the tax rate for the current tax year that would generate the same property tax revenue as … the previous tax year” with the current year’s value assessments, according to state statute. For Prairie Village to achieve a revenue neutral rate by taking in the same amount of property tax revenues as the previous year, the city would need to lower the mill levy rate to 17.365 mills.
Some city leaders in Johnson County say the revenue neutral rate asks municipalities to craft the next year’s budget using last year’s dollars.
Here’s an overview of the final budget’s priorities as well as how the budget impacts Prairie Villager’s property tax bills.
A look at the 2025 budget
- A majority of Prairie Village’s $32 million general fund expenditures in 2025 are going toward personnel expenses, which are expected to cost about $16 million.
- Contract services represent another $6 million, followed by a nearly $5.5 million transfer to the city’s capital infrastructure fund.
- The 2025 budget also includes an increase in police salaries, a move the city council approved in June by sending the preliminary budget forward.
- A majority of the city’s general fund revenues are coming from property taxes at $11.5 million, with another $6.6 million coming from sales taxes.
- A detailed look at Prairie Village’s 2025 budget and process can be found online here.
How this impacts your tax bill
The city’s property tax rate dictates how much homeowners pay in taxes based on their home’s assessed value.
The average appraised home value in Prairie Village in 2024 is $523,805, which is up by nearly 6% from the average home value in 2023.
Here is how homeowners can calculate the portion of their tax bill they will pay to the city based on the recently adopted budget:
- Multiply your home value by the residential assessment rate in Johnson County, which is 0.115.
- Take that number, divide it by 1,000 and multiply the outcome by the city’s 18.325 property tax rate.
- Using this formula, the average Prairie Village homeowner will pay $1,103 in taxes to the city in 2025 compared to $1,041 in 2024.
Remember: Residents pay taxes to more than just the city with their annual tax bill. Like all Johnson Countians, Prairie Village residents pay a higher proportion of their annual taxes to other jurisdictions, including school districts and the county itself.
‘Sharpen our pencils’
Sharp said she was surprised to learn from city staff that the city only needed to cut the budget by $610,000, or less than 2% of the city’s budget, to achieve a revenue neutral rate. She said she felt like the city could “sharpen our pencils a little more” to make some cuts and that she doesn’t “think that’s too much to ask” to cut items and give residents a “little bit back.”
Councilmember Terrence Gallagher said any calls to make budget cuts need to come with tangible suggestions. He added that he was the only councilmember who sat through six days’ worth of staff budget meetings, where individual department leaders went line by line to see where they could make cuts.
“They did everything they could to try to find a little extra 2% here and 2% there,” Gallagher said. “I think that we need to give them that respect and due diligence. They did not look at this willy-nilly.”
Gallagher and Councilmember Greg Shelton said some of the $610,000 that Sharp mentioned could be cut includes about $420,000 to go toward a police salary increase. (Shelton is the brother-in-law of Post publisher Jay Senter.)
For her part, Sharp said she supports police and prioritizes funding the police department, but voted against the preliminary budget in June and against adopting the 2025 budget last week — both of which included increasing police salaries.
Sharp also pointed out the $1.15 million set aside in the 2025 budget for future debt payments on the city’s $30 million city hall and police department project. By not saving for that project, the city could have achieved a revenue neutral rate, city staff confirmed.
Keep reading local government news: Olathe approves flat tax rate, higher utility rates, expanded rebate program for 2025
