More residents may soon become eligible for Overland Park’s property tax rebate pilot program this year.
With roughly $110,000 left in the pot set aside for city property tax rebates this year, the city is looking at expanding the eligibility criteria to include more household income levels in the program.
Currently, only extremely low and very low income households — defined under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines for the Kansas City metro area — are eligible for the rebate. However, the city could expand that to include low-income households as well.
Last week, the Overland Park City Council Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee took the first stab at the proposed new terms for the pilot, voting 6-0 to recommend approval.
“I see this program as being very successful,” said Councilmember Chris Newlin, who chairs the committee. “We’re probably missing some people … And by moving this up just one step, we are going to probably get a much bigger group of people and improve this program, and help more people.”
Overland Park is trialing a property tax rebate this year
Overland Park joined other Johnson County communities this year in setting up a pilot program to test out a property tax rebate program, earmarking $200,000 for it. The city also tapped Community Capital Fund to help administer it for a maximum fee of $30,000 taken from the fund.
In the initial approval, the city targeted the rebate toward households with an annual income that the HUD considers “Very Low” or “Extremely Low” — $55,700 or less for a family of four.
The other terms of the property tax rebate are:
- A property owner must reside in the Overland Park home on which they request a rebate.
- They have to be current on their property taxes.
- No more than 75% of the city property of their property tax bill will be rebated.
The city also outlined some additional priority criteria that could be used to weigh applications. Those include:
- Homes with an appraised value lower than the year prior’s average for the city. (In 2025, Overland Park’s average appraised home value is $528,006.)
- Individuals who have resided at the same address for 15 years or longer.
- Individuals who are veterans, disabled and/or over the age of 65.
- Homes within the city’s “priority neighborhoods,” which would be determined by Overland Park’s neighborhood indicators analysis system.
160+ residents received rebates in first round
The first window to apply for the rebate program in Overland Park ran from June 1 to July 15, and the checks were expected to be issued no later than Aug. 15.
In that time period, Community Capital Fund received around 215 applications. Of those, 161 were deemed eligible and received a combined $60,000 in rebates.
Andrew Davis, senior program manager from Community Capital Fund, told the committee last Wednesday that the average age of a recipient was 64 and that, on average, they had lived in their current residence for 23 years. The average rebate was $358, and the average home value was $283,700.
“We can say that we got a really, really good sample size of folks that really are in need, and that they did receive the rebate,” Davis said.
Rebate fund still has $100K+ left in it
After that first round, about $110,000 remains in the pot for the rebate program, and according to city documents, staff do not think that money would be spent down completely with the current income criteria in place.
Additionally, Davis said more than 130 unfinished applications remain in the online portal after reaching the income eligibility stage, suggesting that more people could get tax relief through the rebate if they expanded the income requirements.
“We are confident that with just some tweaks to the program, we can get more of those dollars out,” Davis said.
Next steps:
- The full city council needs to vote to expand the property tax rebate pilot before the new criteria take effect.
- The first round of applications for the rebate program has wrapped up, but a second round is expected to begin on Sept. 15 (a delay that is tied to the expanded eligibility standards).
- Though 2025 was just a pilot year for a rebate, the draft budget for 2026 proposes continuing it and adding another $20,000 to the fund, bringing the program’s total for 2026 to $220,000.
Keep reading: Overland Park proposes 2026 budget with flat tax rate — What does it mean for you?
