Leavenworth County valuations increase 15%

Tonganoxie Public Library Corner

By Mike Stieben Leavenworth County Commission

Bob Weber, Leavenworth County Appraiser gave his quarterly report which included releasing statistics on the 2021 county property tax valuations for various categories of property during the Leavenworth County Commission meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

County appraisers all across Kansas are required to discover, list, and value all real-estate in each county as of January first. March 1st, the County Appraiser will then mail 32,009 real estate change-of-value notices.

Kansas property owners wishing to appeal the valuation on their change of value notice can do so by contacting the County Appraiser’s Office within 30 days of the mail date printed on the change of value notice.

Parcels by class in Leavenworth County: l Residential, 21,626 l Farm, 3,537 l Commercial, 988 l Exempt, 751 l Not for profit, 5 l Utilities, 47 l Vacant, 2,014 l Other, 7

The average sale price for a home in Leavenworth County increased by 12% from 2020 to 2021. The number of singlefamily residential sales increased to 1,435 a 2.4% increase over the previous year. The number of single-family homes built in Leavenworth County increased by 39% from 2020-2021.

Valuations are used as the basis for taxation for local government property taxes. Your tax dollars are used for funding of roads, parks, fire protection, health care, senior services, and all other local government services. Property taxes also fund public school districts. Homes, commercial real property and certain other property categories are appraised at “market value” as of the first of January of each year. Market value is the amount of money a wellinformed buyer would pay and a well-informed seller would accept for property in an open and competitive market without outside influence according to the statute. The appraiser uses comparable sales statistics to compare properties that are similar within the county.

Valuation increases once again are excessive and many of our citizens especially those on fixed incomes, are finding it increasingly difficult to pay the high property taxes, creating undue burden on those wishing to maintain home ownership.

For example, in 2015 the average sale price for a new home was $261,317 and in 2021 it had ballooned to $374,041, as you can see this directly translates into an increased tax burden based upon the price of these homes. Average sale prices for existing homes increased from $166,998 in 2015 to $266,678 in 2021.

The state formula of basing property valuations on market value needs to be changed by our legislators in Topeka. Local officials are required to work within the present system and all too often are cast as the villain because they are only entering numbers as required by state legislation and the Kansas Constitution.

Assessed value of all property in 2021 was $756,825,348 and increased to $871,536,604 in 2022 for a total change of 15.16%. The increase in Tonganoxie was 15.11 %, Leavenworth 13.83%, Basehor 19.81%, Linwood 27.09%, and 15.35 % in the rural areas of the county. These valuations of course will be reflected on the tax bills that will be levied against home owners.

Leavenworth County has reduced the mil levy by a quarter of a mill two of the last three years but the county portion of all taxes is only about 25% of the total with school districts averaging around 40% depending upon the district. Thus, to keep taxes low all local levels of government will have to make a concerted effort to make fiscally conservative decisions.

It has been my privilege to help a number of taxpayers with the appeals process by providing comparable sales information this is accomplished by providing a CMA (Comparable Market Analysis), which may be helpful during the appeals process. The appraiser will sometimes be able to lower valuations by looking at alternative comparables. Please let me know if

I can do anything to assist you or to provide you with additional information on your property tax bill.

God Bless, Mike Stieben — Stieben is on the Leavenworth County Commission representing the Fifth District.

TBA award winners announced at dinner

Tonganoxie Business Association had its annual business appreciation dinner and recognized several businesses and organizations.

TBA announced winners during the event Feb. 15 for both 2020 and 2021, as there was no banquet this past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event took place at Deer Ridge Estate near Tonganoxie.

Speaker for the evening was Dan Meers, who has donned the KC Wolf mascot for the Kansas City Chiefs for many years. Here are the 2020 and 2021 winners:

2020

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