One Prairie Village program to provide tax relief for residents is remaining relatively unchanged, despite one councilmember’s proposed updates.
The Prairie Village City Council on Monday during its committee meeting effectively shut down a proposal by Councilmember Greg Shelton to change the city’s property tax rebate program to emphasize helping young families.
Currently, the property tax rebate program gives eligible residents — based only on income levels — the city’s portion of their individual tax bill back as a way to offer some tax relief.
The city council discussed Shelton’s proposal to prioritize families as a way to provide relief for those dealing with high childcare costs in addition to an increased cost of living. (Shelton is the brother-in-law of Post publisher Jay Senter.)
The city council took no official action on this agenda item.
Prairie Village started the program in 2022
- The city opened applications for the property tax rebate program — with $20,000 set aside — in January 2022.
- The city has historically required residents to fall under certain income guidelines by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine eligibility for the program.
- Originally, the program required residents to fall under the housing department’s “very low income” guidelines.
- In order to help more families, the city changed the income eligibility to 65% of the median family income for the Kansas City area.
- The city has also increased how much it sets aside for the program each year, with a little more than $25,000 earmarked for 2024.
The proposal prioritized young families
- Shelton said he’s been concerned about the cost of living for young families with children in particular since he was elected in 2021.
- His proposal called for putting families, a household with at least one dependent 18 years old or younger, at the front of the line for applications considered for a property tax rebate.
- Other proposed changes deal with increasing the home valuation limit to help more families and how the program defines family.
- Later on during the discussion, Shelton said he’s concerned about the “social stigma” around young families taking any help.
- “There is a social stigma to offering this type of support to young families because they feel like if they opt in, they’re failing, and we should not do that,” Shelton said. “These families are an important part of our community.”
“Gymnastics and ranking people”
- Some councilmembers and Mayor Eric Mikkelson effectively shut down the idea to prioritize young families through the property tax rebate program.
- Councilmember Terry O’Toole said he appreciated the work Shelton put into the idea, but shared concerns that the proposal seems to complicate the program for city staff.
- O’Toole said city staff should not have “to go through these gymnastics and ranking people” in order to determine who gets a property tax rebate.
- Mikkelson said he supports discussing the income thresholds, but he is against “categorizing different types of people based on whether they have kids or not.”
- “Pushing seniors on fixed incomes to the end of the line, maybe not getting anything, in favor of families maybe making ($140,000), maybe $170,000 in the case of a family of four — I don’t want to do that in Prairie Village,” Mikkelson said.
Go deeper: Watch the city council’s entire discussion online here, starting at 2:23:40.
Editor’s note: Greg Shelton is married to Post Publisher Jay Senter’s sister.
