Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach says Johnson County’s proposed Public Safety Sales Tax renewal, which is set to come to the public for a vote this November, is “unlawful.”
In an opinion released Monday, Kobach warns that the Board of County Commissioners’ resolution earlier this year setting up the vote would be voided by a court.
Kobach also contends that the Johnson County commission exceeded its authority in proposing the tax renewal at all, which he argues should be considered a new tax.
“Imposing new taxes on the people of Kansas is something that can be done only under tightly limited situations and as specifically allowed by Kansas law,” Kobach said in a news release his office issued Tuesday. “Johnson County is breaking the law by imposing this new tax for this purpose.”
He issued the opinion at the prompting of Kansas State Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican. In Kobach’s office’s press release, Thompson is quoted as saying the sales tax measure shows “another example of a county board that’s out of control.”
Kobach questioned the validity of calling the issue a tax renewal. Though the money raised by the tax is still earmarked for public safety, it will be used for different purposes than its original aim to fund the new district courthouse in downtown Olathe. Kobach referred to it as a new tax.
Lisa Thurber, director of the county department of communications and engagement, acknowledged in an email to the Post that the county had received the attorney general’s opinion.
“While the opinion does not carry the force of law and is not binding on courts or other entities, the Board of County Commissioners is reviewing and considering its content,” the county statement says.
County chair Mike Kelly declined to comment on this story directly, instead pointing the Post to the county’s statement.
JoCo plans to use the sales tax for range of public safety projects
Johnson County’s quarter-cent public safety sales tax was initially authorized in 2016 and took effect in 2017.
The county and cities split the revenue it raises each year, with the county’s portion helping to finance the new courthouse in downtown Olathe and a new medical examiner facility.
If voters approve extending the tax 10 more years, then the estimated $54 million raised annually would be split between the county and the cities, with $35 million going to the county for additional public safety expenses.
The remaining $19 million would be divided among Johnson County cities to use as they see fit on their own public safety projects.
The tax revenue would not necessarily help pay for the construction of public safety facilities. Instead, the revenues would go to capital and operating costs for the county’s Med-Act ambulance service, sheriff’s office, district attorney, mental health crisis intervention and disaster response, all of which were sticking points for Kobach in his opinion.
The AG’s opinion says that the fact that the sales tax’s use going forward would not be for specific construction and operation costs exceeds the county commission’s authority to levy the tax under state law. He also suggests that it should only be used on “physical facilities directly related to law enforcement.”
“Because the proposition seeks to institute a new tax under the guise of continuing the current tax, the proposition exceeds the Board’s authority, which means that it is null and void,” Kobach wrote.
The state law in question specifically grants Johnson County the authority to put a public safety-specific sales tax up for the voters to consider for a term of 10 years that “may be
extended or reenacted” by an election for “additional periods not exceeding 10 years.”
The law says the money can finance “the construction and operation costs of public safety projects,” which could include a crime lab, a sheriff’s resource center, a jail or “other county administrative or operational facility dedicated to public safety.”
Kobach said the fact that the money would go to different projects than what was detailed under the original 2016 sales tax nullifies it as a renewal, instead making it a “new” tax.
“[M]y office has concluded the Board has exceeded its authority through the Resolution and ballot proposition,” Kobach’s opinion says.
Read Kobach’s full opinion here.
Ballot measure faces early September deadline
In May, the county commission voted 5-1 to put the measure on the ballot this November. (Commissioner Michael Aschraft cast the lone dissenting vote, expressing concern that the county was becoming too dependent on temporary funding sources for long-term operations.)
The county commission is now weighing the attorney general’s opinion but hasn’t taken any action. The commission is meeting at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, though nothing related to the tax issue is on the board’s agenda.
Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman told the Post the deadline his office has set to submit — or in this case withdraw — something from the November 2025 ballot is Sept. 2.
While not a strict deadline, Sherman said that early September timeframe would give the county time to prepare ballots for the nearly 600 precincts it covers and send out ballots requested by military and overseas voters, a requirement of federal law, by mid-September.
If the sales tax renewal is removed from this November’s ballot or the voters reject it, then the tax will expire in spring 2027.
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