By Jennifer Williams
March 25, 2026
As I continue to point out the problems with the mass appraisal system and the rising appraisals, we are told by legislators to have hurting seniors apply for the property tax relief for seniors.
What the legislators are failing to admit, is that those among us who qualify for the largest relief of 75% of their property tax refunded, are being priced out of this program, as their appraisals arbitrarily rise above the $350,000 valuation limit – that has not adjusted with the massive appraisal inflations we have seen from county appraisers across the state since Covid.
Here is one example.
This homeowner only gets $14,088 a year from Social Security, and she has to pay $3,384 for Medicare from this amount, resulting in an annual take home pay of $10,704.
She is 77 years old and has owned her home for over 40 years.
Her property tax is now $6,578 a year, with a 2025 county appraisal of $538,630 (which is getting close to double her 2020 valuation of $294,600.)
Although her income allows her to get a $4,934 refund on her property tax using the 75% refund program, her valuation now disqualifies her since it exceeds the $350,000 state limit.
She would have qualified for this program up until the last few years, as astronomical appraisal increases on a deteriorating home with no improvements pushed her out of the program.
This forces her into the SVR program that allows her to be locked into the 2021 valuation and property tax amount, but it only offers a refund of the difference from the 2021 tax to the current year, in this case only a $2,067 refund.
This loss of a $2,867 refund is 20% of her gross income!
Her current property tax bill on her home is 47% of her gross income or 61.2% of her take home pay after Medicare.
The Miami County property tax history only goes back to 2017, where she was paying $3,556.72 a year for property tax. She’s a rural resident and only has county, school, fire, and a small township tax.
I sat down with this homeowner last week, and her story is all too familiar and matches what I’m hearing from clients daily.
When she retired, she had no idea her property taxes would ever be this high.
She is faced with a very real decision of having to sell her family home where she raised her children because the property taxes are stealing her ability to survive.
She has been dipping into savings and fears it will run out soon, with no choice left but to lose her home.
What are we doing Kansas???
Our homes should never be on the auction block because our local and state governments’ and school boards’ irresponsible and entitled budgets are stealing from the people who have no ability to stop the greed, handouts, and bloated, unnecessary expenditures.
It’s time to abolish property tax on our homes, cut expenditures, and save Kansas homeownership!
