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Thursday, November 30, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Keith Thorpe KANSAN
Demonstrators gather on the Capitol's steps to ask legislators for accountability for property tax increases.
Keith Thorpe/KANSAN
State Sen. B.D. Kanan, D-Kanaas City, Kan',
speaks out against high property taxes.
Rally
Continued from p. 1
Fred Kilian, a senior citizen from Wamego, said he came to the rally because the taxes on his home went up about 250 percent and the taxes on his farm almost doubled.
"You've got to let them know," he said of state legislators. "You can't just stay home."
State Sen. Jim Allen, R-Ottawa, watched the scene.
"I'm not sure there's a mandate out there," Allen said. "There are a lot of people whose taxes went down. They're not here today."
After Hayden's 45-minute meeting with protesters, Karen France, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of Realtors and one of the protesters who met with Hayden, said the governor should give stronger leadership to the special legislative tax committee now granolling with tax relief.
"I sure think it would make a difference if the governor would come in and give a starting point," she said. "It takes leadership to get things started sometimes. We'd feel better if his was stronger."
Hayden told reporters that he approved of the rally.
"It's important that people have an opportunity to say their piece," he said. "I think the concern is very real."
Hayden, who previously had declined to comment on specific tax-relief measures until after the legislative committee finished work today, announced two measures he would support.
Hayden also said he would support a tax lid on the amount of property tax city and county governments could levy, because some local governments had raised their tax rates.
Hayden said he would give more money to the State Board of Tax Appeals, allowing it to increase its staff from 20 to 39. The expansion will enable the board to process more tax protests.
But Hayden said he would seriously consider two general approaches to raise money to expand the "circuit breaker," a tax-relief program.
Taking money from the state general fund is one possibility Hayden wants to study. The other is to delay the first year of financing for the state's $2.65 billion highway program passed by the 1989 Legislature.
Committee discusses tax-relief proposals
By Holly Lawton Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA — The debate about property reappraisal and classification continued yesterday as 81 protesters sat in on a legislative meeting at the Capitol to express their dissatisfaction.
Douglas County Treasurer Nancy L. Hempen also presented her testimony to the Study Committee on Assessment and Taxation about the negative effects of reappraisal on taxpayers.
"As local elected officials, we are very sympathetic to the concerns of our taxpayers and are trying desperate to find a little information we have," srb said.
Hempen said that extending the tax payment date from Dec. 20 to Jan. 16 would be an acceptable measure but that it did not fully address the taxpayers' concerns. She cited three proposals as possibly negatively affecting taxpayers if they were passed:
- Allowing citizens to pay the same half property tax in 1899 as they did in 1876.
> Allowing citizens to pay one-fourth of their 1989 tax bill or to pay in monthly payments.
Suspending payment on the second half of the 1989 property tax for citizens who pay their first-half tax until the last protest has been resolved.
Programming, statutes and more financing would be needed to support those changes, Hempen said. Budgets also have been set and approved based on the 1989 tax abstracts.
"All of the above-mentioned proposals will result in more expenses to the county, which in turn will be passed on to the taxpayer by higher taxes," she said. "I ask you all to please consider all the facts and effects of every proposal and how it will affect every taxpayer in Kansas. Do not let your short-term solution make a long-range catastrophe for you, for local governments and the citizens of Kansas."
Douglas County has experienced percentage increases of 10.7 percent and 13 percent due to the projected growth in tax levies in 1988 and 1989, said Charles Warren, president of Kansas Inc. Kansas Inc, is studying local development by identification on the state of Kansas and its cities, counties and school districts.
"Most disturbing is the knowledge that Kansas is the highest taxing state in this region." Warren said. "Extreme variations in tax shifts and tax burdens have taken place across Kansas. Reappraisal and classification has had a highly variable and different impact from county to county and from taxing district to taxing district."
Jes Santalauria, Lawrence resident, expressed his views on reappeal at the meeting. Each person was allowed three minutes to speak and was encouraged to mention his taxes had increased by about six times on two pieces of his property.
"This is staggering," he said. "This tax represents 25 to 35 percent of the gross income of this property. It is a burden on small businesses in Kansas and may cause economic hardship." Your business could survive if you paid 35 percent of your income on taxes.
Margin
be utilized from the general fund would be unavailable for education and social programs," he said.
Continued from p. 1
State Sen. Dan Thiessen, R-Independence and chairman of a special legislative committee considering options for property tax relief, said Tuesday that financing for tax relief could take money from the Margin.
Ed Rofls, secretary of revenue, told the committee on Tuesday that a tight state budget and tax relief programs will cut programs such as the Margin.
State Rep. Betty Jo Charlton, D-Lawrence and a member of the special legislative committee now studying property tax relief for low-income families, the governor would include money for the Margin in his budget.
However, she said she was confident that no money from the Margin would be used for tax relief.
Barkis said yesterday that he
"I don't think the administration is going to be able to call the shots when it comes to funding property tax relief," she said.
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