By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A tame Barton County Commission meeting turned into a lively conversation about tax statements Wednesday morning. The county recently mailed out property tax statements, which has prompted many phone calls to various officials. Treasurer Jim Jordan addressed the commission.
"The treasurer's office, the only thing we do, or are responsible for, is sending out tax statements," he said. "That's it. We don't put the numbers together, we don't do anything, we just send them out. In order for the treasurer's office to send out the tax statements, we have to have the correct numbers. I don't get the correct numbers until the clerk rolls the tax rolls."
After a lengthy discussion about taxing entities that are shared between counties, sometimes causing delays, Commission Chair Shawn Hutchinson explained the process in its barest form.
"All of those 56 taxing entities need to report to the clerk's office before the clerk can report to the treasurer's office, then the treasurer sends out the tax statements," he said. "If one of those 56 entities is lagging behind for whatever reason, we can't send out any tax statements."
Former County Clerk and Commissioner-Elect Donna Zimmerman explained how the state handled one of the shared districts in the past.
"The state a few years ago set a precedent in that we are part of one of the largest joint districts in Barton County being the Central Kansas Library District," she said. "There are 16 counties, so you've got a lot of movement of valuations and a lot of publications that have to occur. A few years ago, they allowed that as the only district to be set with a mill levy on the July values."
County appraiser Wendy Prosser said just 2.9 percent of property taxes statewide come from personal property taxes. With vehicles, trailers, and watercraft, there is some fluctuation between the July 1 and Nov. 1 valuations, but smaller counties like Barton are not usually affected.
The commissioners and department heads agreed moving back the valuation date to Oct. 1 could be a practical solution that needs to be addressed at the state level.
Zimmerman said the passage of Senate Bill 13 relating to Revenue Neutral Rates has not helped the process, and Commissioners Kirby Krier and Jon Prescott suggested the state legislature should abolish the bill entirely. Until then, county offices are forced to deal with tight timelines. The clerk's office recently held a general election as the final tax rolls were coming in. Jordan's staff at the treasurer's office is now on overtime.
"If we get them out earlier in the treasurer's office, we have a longer period of time to enter them," Jordan said. "Now we have a shorter time to enter them because we have to have them entered by Dec. 31. Now my employees, every day we're doing 10 hours and Saturdays trying to get all those entered because they come in so fast, because people are trying to get them paid by the 20th. I'm as frustrated as the citizens and taxpayers are."
"That creates a financial hardship for our county," said Prescott. "We're paying overtime rates to jump, last minute. That's unfair to our county."
Commissioner Barb Esfeld said, in the least, Senate Bill 13 needs to be changed during the upcoming legislative session. Krier and Prescott reiterated the entire bill needs to be scrapped.
"To change this, we need to all get involved, not just the commissioners but everybody county-wide," Prescott said. "We need to get ahold of our representatives, and we can get their email or their phone numbers off their websites. We need to start with Alicia Straub, Tori Arnberger (Blew), Troy Waymaster, and Brett Fairchild, and reach out to them, and say abolish Senate Bill 13. Sweet and simple."
Jordan did offer a partial solution to frustrated taxpayers. Tax bills are posted on the county's website approximately three weeks ahead of when they arrive in the mail. Property owners can find their bills and pay them by CLICKING HERE.