June 25, 2024
By Jennifer Williams
As Johnson County, Kansas exceeds revenue neutral in their budget again, the required public hearing will be August 20 at 6 PM in the Board of County Commissioners County Administration Building, Suite 3300, 111 South Cherry Street, Olathe, Kansas 66061-3486
To review the proposed budget, click here.
This is a $36.4 million increase from last year’s budget, which was a $139.8 million increase from 2023.
Mortgage escrow analyses arrived last week, adjusting for the 2024 property tax and insurance increases.
Many homeowners reported $150 – $200 increase in monthly mortgage payments caused by the increases in valuations multiplied against the mostly constant mill rate.
As jurisdictions continue to blame inflation for budget increases, it is worthy to note that Johnson County has more than doubled their budget since 2015.
These increases are not sustainable!
Homeowners need real property tax relief in order to protect private homeownership in Kansas.
Write your house representative and demand they return for a special session putting the 4% annual valuation cap on the November 2024 election!
This is the only way to stop these jurisdictions from hiding massive raises by using a constant levy against astronomically increasing (and many times falsely inflated) appraisal values.
It is time for action if you expect change!
Spend, spend, spend…..The BOCC on June 13th agreed to send $1.5 million to the Missouri NGO, KC2026 and on which Chairman Kelly is an at large member, to help Missouri fund the World Cup. This is in addition to the $28 million of your tax dollars the Kansas legislature has already sent to Missouri.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, on June 20th the BOCC refused to give the Sheriff an additional $1.5 million to hire 10 additional deputies to reduce costs and save the county over $350,000 in 2026. Nope, no money for public safety, it isn’t glitzy enough to gain the conflicted interests of our Chairman, Mike Kelly.
Charlotte O’Hara
3rd District JoHnsion County Commissioner
The above chart states that public safety and emergency services is the second highest expenditure in both 2015 and now.
How can we stop this Mike Kelly from his corruption and greed!!
DO NOT fund these stadiums or we will leave Johnson County and go to another state. Instead of MO being the fools, Laura Kelly is trying to make it us. Mo said NO!!! People who go to games need to pay for the stadiums, or the fat cat owners. You all keep trying to put all this on us through rising, rising, rising property taxes.
Cindy, you are correct. Article 6 clearly describes what is to be funded by the Kansas taxpayer and organized athletics, and all the salaries and additional expenses that go along with that in our publicly funded schools. Physical Education and Health for for ALL meet the constitutional criteria for taxpayer funding but is a fraction of the cost. What we all need in Kansas are voters and candidates that know how to read, understand (in its historically accurate meaning) our state’s written constitution, and obey it. BTW, concerning your “property taxes” Read the 2nd statement in the original ordinance at the beginning of the Kansas Constitution, then read through all of Article 11 dealing with what, and how, Kansans will be taxed and decide for yourself if Article 11 has been perverted into one massive constitutional VIOLATION of the Kansas Ordinamce. Verity Seeker (Mark Powls)