Fairway residents could pay nearly $350 more on average in property taxes in 2027 if the city’s proposed budget is ultimately approved as is.
The Fairway City Council is considering a 4-mill increase to its mill levy, or property tax, rate as part of ongoing discussions over the 2027 budget.
This would take the mill rate from 19.929 mills in 2026 to 23.929 in 2027.
It would be the first mill levy rate increase in Fairway since 2016.
The proposal for a 4-mill increase comes as the city grapples with the impact inflation is having on its capital improvement plan fund for items like street and facility maintenance or vehicle and equipment purchases, officials said.
While the city council discussed the prospective increase at Monday’s meeting, no final action was taken. The city council approved in a 6-1 vote a resolution signaling its intent to exceed the state-defined revenue neutral rate and set its maximum mill levy rate at 23.929 mills.
Councilmember Kelly-Ann Buszek cast the lone dissenting vote, and Councilmember Emily Snyder was absent.
Councilmember Lee Story said he knows a mill levy rate increase is unpopular, but the alternative is to kick it “down the road, which would be easier to do.”
“Frankly, the longer we wait, the more expensive things are to fix, and yet, they will still require fixing,” Story said.
This would result in higher property taxes for residents
While residential property tax bills across Johnson County typically increase annually anyway due to growing home values, Fairway residents may see an even higher jump in property taxes if the city approves the mill levy rate increase.
In 2026, the average residential property value in Fairway is $753,981, a 5.8% jump from 2025.
Fairway homeowners can use the following formula to calculate how much they might pay to the city in property taxes if the proposed mill rate increase is approved:
- Multiply your home value by the residential assessment rate in Johnson County, which is .115.
- Take that number, divide it by 1,000 and multiply the outcome by the city’s property tax rate in mills. (In this case, you can use 23.929 to see the maximum you’d pay if the mill increase is approved.)
Using this formula, the average homeowner in Fairway would pay $2,074 to the city in property taxes under the proposed mill levy rate increase.
If the city kept the mill levy rate flat at 19.929 mills in 2027, the average homeowner would pay $1,728 to the city in property taxes next year. That is a $346 increase for the average Fairway homeowner.
Reminder: A homeowner’s property tax bill also includes rates set by other jurisdictions such as the county, school districts and fire departments.
The city’s justification for the increase
With a 4-mill increase on the table, city officials point to inflation and, in particular, the increasing costs of work funded through its capital improvement plan program.
City Administrator Nathan Nogelmeier told the city council on Monday that as transfers into the capital improvement fund have increased over the past 13 years, so have expenditures out of that fund.
For example, in 2016, the city completed resurfacing of Mission Road between Shawnee Mission Parkway and 63rd Street for $243,000. That same work in 2026 is estimated to cost $634,000, Nogelmeier said.
Without an increase to the mill levy rate, roughly 75% of the streets earmarked for maintenance over the next five years would be deferred, Nogelmeier said.
“If we do the mill increase, we are not fully funding the CIP, it is going to leave a little bit of a deferred maintenance list,” Nogelmeier said.
If the city does not increase its mill rate, city staff signaled areas for potential cuts, including animal control, the police co-responder program, a freeze on all seasonal wages and right-of-way tree trimming. None of those cuts are being proposed at this time.
Councilmember Joseph Levin said he agrees with Story that it is better to increase the mill levy now instead of kicking it down the road.
“We’ve considered the cost of not doing this, and if we don’t do this, it’s going to throw a big burden on our future generation — much worse than we’re facing now,” Levin said. “I think biting the bullet now makes much more sense.”
Buszek, who cast the lone dissenting vote on Monday, said some of her Ward 1 residents are concerned about an increase to their tax burden.
Buszek said some suggestions from residents for saving on expenditures include suspending the mailing of the city’s newsletter, freezing or scaling back salary raises and cost-of-living increases for a year.
Other NEJC cities recently increased property taxes
In recent years, some neighboring northeast Johnson County cities have also increased their property tax rates, like Fairway is now considering.
Last year, the city of Westwood approved a 4-mill increase to its property tax rate for 2026. That brought the city’s mill levy rate to 25.199 mills this year.
Similar to in Fairway, Westwood officials cited gaps in its major infrastructure projects as the need for the increase.
Westwood elected officials at that time also pointed to a failed office-retail development that would have generated more tax revenues for the city, but voters rejected the plan in a special April 2025 mail-in election.
For both the 2024 and 2026 budget cycles, the city of Mission also raised its property tax rate to help deal with a budget deficit.
The 2026 deficit was largely driven by the city’s $1 million transfers out of the general fund, including into the capital improvement fund for street maintenance.
Next steps:
- The Fairway City Council anticipates a formal vote on the budget at its Sept. 14 meeting.
- The city council meets at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 5240 Belinder Road.
Keep reading local government news: Olathe proposes $468.5M budget with no tax rate increases — but hiring freezes and project delays are coming
