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By: SCOTT HILL
Kansas Senator 24th District
The legislature is out of the Capital and all of the aspiring candidates are hard on the campaign trail. It may seem trivial; however, the Governor is still vetoing bills from the last days of session. Of interest to me and perhaps to you is the veto of HB2034, which was the last of numerous attempts by the legislature to reign in increases in property taxes.
Magicians entertain audiences by making perceived reality appear to be the truth, at least in the observer’s eyes. The classic case of pulling a rabbit from the magician’s hat seems impossible, because you just saw an empty hat demonstrated by the trickster. While the entertainment of visual deception is fascinating if you are attending a show in Branson, it is not nearly as entertaining when ever-increasing property taxes are the non-existent rabbit. The Governor of our state has never been accused of being a magician, however the slight of hand she uses for tax reduction legislation is perfectly defined as; “now you see it, now you don’t.”
Reducing property tax is clearly a top priority for Kansans. The case of fixed income people losing homes that are paid for due to inability to afford increasing tax burden is the classic example. That example points to the primary problem with property tax. There is no associated ability to pay coupled with the assessment of tax. While both sales and income tax are connected to available cash resources the same is not true for property tax. In fact, the opposite situation exists in many cases; property is purchased with available tax paid cash which then reduces liquid financial resources to pay taxes.
In Kansas two entities levy property tax. The first is our public education system. Generally speaking, older Kansans have accumulated the most property. Those that have worked hard all their lives to afford buying a home are asked to over time give that value of home back to public education. It seems that spreading taxation for a state financed benefit should be spread over the population as a whole, since all benefit from an educated state. The second entity to levy property taxes is local units of government. Statutorily most local units primarily use property as the funding mechanism to support everything from roads to cemeteries with a myriad of services in-between.
No one could truly believe in the concept of property tax miraculously disappearing. That illusion seems to be in the future yet. What has been debated in the legislature is starting the process of less reliance on this most unfair of taxes. If we flash back to Gubernatorial campaigns, the prevailing image was of a chief administrator that would “ax the tax.” The reality has been a governor that axes the tax relief. The latest veto was one of a long string of vetoes over the last four years that through illusion the governor has justified vetoing. We need legislators and executive branch leaders that will not play tricks to fool the public. It is the mark of good, elected officials that they do what they say. I look forward to the future, when the thing that we say; “reduce the property tax burden,” is what we do as a state.
Scott.Hill@senate.ks.gov