TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) House members have approved a measure that provides Kansas cities and counties with $90 million property tax relief while requiring public notification when property valuations increase.
The bill, approved Monday 101-23, goes to the Senate. It restores a city-county revenue sharing program that ran from 1938 to 2004, and it requires the local governments to use the money to reduce property taxes. The bill would share $45 million in both 2013 and 2014.
The bill includes a requirement that cities and counties lower their property tax rates when the overall valuation has increased. The intent is to end a practice that legislators called “stealth” tax increases when property values increased but tax rates didn’t.
Local governments still could vote to increase rates if property valuation declined.
