Arrangements are in the works for Barton County taxpayers to get their annual property valuations in the mail, but it’s going to be a little later than normal, due to many changes that the county staff continue to address, County Appraiser Barbara Konrade told the Barton County Commission Monday.
Konrade said her department has an extension to go past the March 1 deadline and that valuation notices are expected to be mailed by April 1.
The county is using an outside firm, Postal Presort, again this year to prepare those mailings and it is anticipated the service will save the county more than $2,000 over having the Appraiser’s Office staff do the work, and that is just in materials and postage.
There is also savings in not slowing down other work by the county staff, Konrade reported.
While each situation is different, Konrade said that, in general, Barton County residential real estate owners can expect to see an increase of 1.8 to 2 percent in valuations. “We don’t just apply that trend,” she added, noting that each case is different.
Commercial property in Barton County is “stable” Konrade said, so there shouldn’t be much of a decrease in valuation expected, and that, for Kansas, is good news. “That’s really good news for Barton County over all,” the appraiser said.
On the other hand, Konrade reported to the commissioners what she had announced earlier, that agricultural land is likely to see a marked increase in valuations this year, due to the procedure that the state uses to set those values.
Explaining the expected increases earlier, Konrade noted it’s important to understand that agricultural land values are set at the state level and are set differently from other land. “It is a use value, using productivity and expenses of land devoted to agricultural use over an eight=year period with a lag time of two years. The 2012 values were established using 2003 through 2010,” she noted.