When Barton County Appraiser Wendy Prosser spoke to the County Commission Wednesday morning, she had some good news. She also wanted to shed light on the complex world of property tax valuation and taxation.
“I’m coming before you with a smile on my face,” Prosser said. “The great news is that we did not receive an extension this year and we were able to mail out our valuation notices by March 1, a feat that we haven’t been able to accomplish the last couple of years but we were able to do so this year.”
The March 1 deadline is mandated by state statute, unless a county applies for and is granted extra time.
Currently, Barton County has 17,892 parcels and her office mailed out 10,950 pieces of mail. “So if you have not received your notices, you should be receiving them any day,” she said.
Barton County residential properties increased in value about 20.2%, commercial 16.92%, and overall countywide about 14.6%.
“But I just want to get the word out there that even though we’re seeing these increases, that doesn’t mean that the tax dollars are going to go up that same percentage as well,” she said.
Behind the numbers
When property owners open those notices, in general, they will see increases between 10 and 30% on residential if not a little bit more. Farm ground went down in value, but farm buildings increased.
“There are reasons behind this,” she said. “It is all driven by mathematical analysis.”
So, she put together a slide presentation to explain to the public what can be very complicated.
“Of course like many of us, the first thing you think of when you see an increase in your valuation is ‘ have to pay more taxes.’” But, that might not necessarily be true, and that doesn’t quite make sense.
“Let’s talk about our tax equation,” she said. The property values multiplied by the mill levy equals the taxes one will owe.
Those taxes go to that the Treasurer’s Office, but they pay for a myriad of important public services for a host of taxing entities, she said. These include public safety, roads/streets, city/county buildings, libraries, schools and so on.
“How did the Appraisers Office decide the valuation that you receive?” Prosser said. “We analyze properties that have sold in Barton county in the last three years on the open market (this year, it was 2020 2021, and 2022).
Each parcel is then compared to other properties that have sold. “We know that no two properties are the same, therefore we make adjustments” based on such things as total living area, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, condition and location.
“Our job is to try to set the values as fair and equitably as possible based on the recent sales in the last three years,” she said. “But we hear a lot in our office ‘I haven’t made any changes to my home. So why did my property value go up?’” By state statute, the county appraisal should be within 10% of the fair market value or what it would sell for if they put the properties on the market.
As an example, she looked at one-story homes in Great Bend: Homes between 600-800 square feet with two bedrooms and one bath went from $28,000 in 2020 to $89,900 in 2022; homes with 1,200 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths went from $94,500 to $118,200; and homes with 1,500 square feet went from $119,600 to $236,300.
Prices vary from town to town in Barton County based on supply and demand. But, “we did see trends like this in our rural areas and our other small towns,” she said.
It is a substantial increase and that is why valuations go up, she said.
What about the mill levy
All public service entities have their own budgets funded through property taxes that they submit to the County Clerk’s Office each year. That total is then divided by the total property valuation to arrive at the mill levy.
“In the last couple of years, you may have heard the term revenue neutral. So what does that mean?” she said. The revenue-neutral rate is the tax rate that would generate the same total property tax in dollars for the county as the previous tax year using the current tax year’s total assessed valuation.
In other words, with the increase in values, the mill levy has to come down in order to generate the exact same tax dollars needed. Any entity that plans on generating more revenue will have to hold a public hearing to explain why this is.
“So later on in the year, the county clerk is going to mail out what they call the revenue neutral rate notices,” she said. These indicate the intentions of each entity, as well as the time and location of any revenue neutral hearing.
The ultimate question is: “Does this mean taxes are going up?”
“Once again, not necessarily,” Prosser said. “It also depends on the public service budgets and the mill levies, and those are all set by the end of November.”
An open door
“If you receive your valuation, if you have questions or you would like to discuss that value, please contact my office and schedule an informal meeting,” she said. Basically, one comes in and they’ll discuss that value and how they came up with it.
They will start holding those hearings next Monday, March 13, and they can be held in the office or via telephone. Hearings will be set on Mondays through Thursdays.
The deadline to schedule an appeal is March 31.
“Please note that when we value properties, we talk about a neighborhood. It may not be the houses that are directly beside you, but in a broader neighborhood that is similar to yours,” she said. Also, they are not going to compare a one-story house to a two-story house.
“That’s why we are more than willing to meet with you,” she said.
Information online
She also noted that all the appraisal data is all public information. It has been updated and is available on the county website.
On the main Barton County website in the right-hand side is the link “Property Search/Appraiser Portal.” “You can go in there and search by address or name,” she said.
Also, under “Departments” and “Appraiser” there is a tab on the left side “Parcel Search” with a link to the ORKA site. This also has a map search feature.
