By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Three years ago, the Kansas legislature passed its revenue-neutral laws to increase transparency regarding property taxes and tax rates. Unfortunately, the legislation has carried a price tag. Each taxing entity that announces an intent to exceed revenue neutral, or collect more tax dollars than it did the year before, must notify the public. At Tuesday's Barton County Commission meeting, County Clerk Bev Schmeidler sought approval on a bid to mail out those notices at a cost exceeding $17,000.
"We received three bids," she said. "Two of them were not complete. They only sent partial information. Postalocity was the only one who sent a complete bid, and they have done it the last two years for us and it's been seamless. We've never had a problem."
The bid, which includes 15-16,000 pieces of mail, was approved at $17,488 and authorized up to $18,500 for the bulk mailing. Commissioner Duane Reif reminded everyone that using a bulk mailing company is cheaper for the county than doing the work in-house. The state reimbursed counties for the mailings for the first two years. Schmeidler said counties were notified last Friday the state would again reimburse the costs this year. Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson said the legislation is still far from ideal.
"Up until Friday, this is what I call an unfunded mandate," he said. "Even though our governing body did not file a notice to exceed revenue neutral, we're on the hook to mail out 15-16,000 notices county-wide, even though we did not file to exceed revenue neutral."
Under the passed statute, counties were to be reimbursed by the state for any mailing costs for calendar years 2022 and 2023. Schmeidler said the reimbursements will now be on a year-to-year basis. Counties may seek reimbursement from all taxing entities required to send the notice in the future if not reimbursed by the state.