Editor’s note: The following is a paid political letter. Zito is a Democrat running for the 67th District House seat.
It’s time the Kansas Legislature holds up its end of the bargain
Did you know Kansas has been sitting on property tax relief for the last 20 years?
Yes. This is news to me. Property tax relief seems to be a relic of the past, no longer casting a shadow of existence in today’s world.
Allow me to point out that both chambers of the Kansas legislature have been controlled by the GOP since 1993 (when Bill Clinton was inaugurated!) — and of the trifecta for 16 of those 29 years.
Case in point: the “Party of No Taxes” has had unilateral power to reduce property tax burdens local governments and households face — but they have chosen NOT TO.
Ssshhh…You hear that? That’s the sound of silence from the current Republican
Party, looking away, manufacturing a moral crisis to mislead our gaze.
Meanwhile, sitting in plain sight, broad daylight is the pile of cash our state government is sitting on — money earmarked specifically for property tax relief.
We talk a lot about taxes, usually with profanity. My husband could make a sailor blush over the prospect of a 7.4% hike in property taxes here in Manhattan.
Meanwhile, I’m perplexed that such an increase still isn’t enough to keep our
parks and rec department strong.
Have you heard of the LAVTRF? Ok, I’ll help you out with that acronym.
Established in the 1930s, it stands for Local Ad Valorem Tax Relief Fund.
Still fuzzy on what that means? Yeah, it’s OK — I was, too.
Those letters are the key to reduce every property owner’s property taxes.
Perhaps you’re new to Kansas and didn’t know of this fund. Perhaps it’s because it’s been so long that those letters fell out of your memory altogether.
The state of Kansas is required by statute to take 3.63% of the state’s sales tax revenues and transfer those monies into this fund for the purpose of aiding counties and municipalities.
The floor of this bucket of money is set at $54 million. In other words, the state must hand out a minimum of $54 million, divided amongst local governments based on population and assessed valuation. But given there’ve been zero distributions in 20 years, the state has effectively accumulated a few billion dollars of money that should have been spent lowering OUR property taxes.
I talked to Chris Courtwright, the principal economist for the state legislature for 35 years and now a member of the Governor’s Council on Tax Reform — to flush out the meaning of all this.
“Local units of government have been fighting for 20 years to get 10 cents for a cup of coffee,” he told me, noting that since 2019 the tax council has repeatedly recommended restoration of the LAVTRF program.
“Policymakers most certainly have not lived up to the original statutory obligations,” Courtwright added.
The governor and legislature initially suspended the funding the property tax relief fund in 2002 because the state was strapped for cash due to the recession that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
And in every subsequent year, the funding of the LAVTRF got, well, overlooked.
Each year, the Republican-controlled legislature would pass a budget without that line item, failing to provide local units with much needed property tax relief — funding that we are all owed to our communities since we all pay sales tax.
Per the statute, local entities are required to use the funding to reduce mill levies on properties.
“This was a priority issue for the Tax Council,” Courtwright said. “Property taxes are the workhorse of local finance, the bread and butter of local budgets.”
The state finished FY 2022 hundreds of millions of dollars ahead of revenue expectations and is already well ahead of the FY 2023 forecast.
Here’s the bottom line, folks. Don’t let this GOP-controlled legislature get away with this ongoing sweeping of our property tax relief dollars. Don’t let any elected Republican backpedal on why restoration of this program never seems to be on the table. They’ve had full control for nearly three decades now, and their incompetence or malfeasance — take your pick — is inexcusable.
We’ve held up our end of the tax equation. It’s high time the state government holds up theirs.
Kim Zito
1013 Cassidy Drive
