By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A decision out of the Kansas state legislature's special session on June 18 was good for taxpayers, but not necessarily good for taxing entities and county clerks across the state. As taxing entities work to finalize budgets for next year, an increase to the school tax exemption from $42,049 to $75,000 was passed last Tuesday. Barton County Clerk Bev Schmeidler said that information was not made available to clerk's offices that send out the paperwork for those budgets until several days later.
"We got the directive on Friday, June 21, in the afternoon, that we would have to start over, redo our abstract, and redo budget sheets for all the taxing entities," she said. "So the work started again on Friday afternoon and started over the process."
The change will show up as a tax credit on property tax statements. The figure recently doubled from $46 to $92, and the new change will mean taxpayers receive up to nearly $172 on tax statements next year. Clerk's offices typically have until June 15 to certify budgets and return them to taxing entities. With the late change, that deadline has been extended to July 1 this year. County Counselor Patrick Hoffman said it will impact all taxing entities across the state.
"The cities and entities that are in touch with their leagues and their associations will be hearing about it as long as they're checking their email," he said. "But there are always some people who are not plugged in."
Tuesday's bill approved in Topeka is expected to reduce state revenue by nearly $2 billion over the next five years.