Lyon County Appraiser Gary Post had a surprise when he did the 2007 property valuations.
“Everything you read nationally is the real estate market is down, down, down,” Post said.
In Lyon County, however, property values went up, although not as much as they have in recent years.
“I did post one of the smallest increases for residential property that I have in the last few years,” he said.
Property valuation notices were mailed Thursday afternoon. When owners open them, this is what they’ll find.
Commercial
Post said commercial property overall is 8 percent higher than it was a year ago.
“That doesn’t mean every property went up 8 percent,” Post said.
Post said if the taxes are about 3.7 percent in value (last year’s figures) a property valued at $95,000 last year would have had a tax of $3,515. If that value were raised 5 percent, and assuming the levies are the same, the taxes would increase to $3,700, an increase of less than $200, Post said.
“Again, that’s assuming the mill levy is staying the same,” Post said.
Agricultural homesteads
Agricultural house and farmsteads are up almost 7 percent.
“Again, these are overall numbers,” Post said. “That doesn’t mean that every house went up 7 percent. Some may have stayed the same, some may have gone up more than 7 percent.”
During Wednesday’s commission meeting, Post said the increase in rural homes is due to demand.
“It’s nice to live in the country,” Post said. “People want to live in the country and there aren’t a lot of houses in the country and therefore the demand is up.”
At the same time, the agricultural land use values are declining (see story at right). That decline will probably affect the county mill levy, Post said.
“Agricultural property is about 5 to 6 percent of the total county value,” Post said. “If you’re losing a portion of that, it’s going to put pressure on the mill levies.”
Residential
Residential valuations saw the smallest increase since 2003. Residential properties overall increased in value 5 percent.
Post said based on last year’s figures, a house valued at $100,000 paid just less than 2 percent in taxes. That figured out to be $1,700 in taxes.
“If I raised it 5 percent on that, that would be $85 more dollars in taxes,” Post said.
Post said the average home price in 2005 was $93,320 and in 2006 it was $95,822.
“That’s nobody doing any magic to it,” Post said. “That’s just taking the totals and dividing them by the number of sales.”
In 2005, the figure was based on 504 sales. In 2006, the number of sales were down to 415.
“So while there were fewer sales, there was still an increase in value,” Post said.
How to appeal your
property valuation
Lyon County Appraiser Gary Post encourages anybody concerned about their valuations to take the following steps:
• Gather information. The sales file will be open for 30 days. Go to www.lyoncounty.org and follow the link to the County Appraiser’s Office. From there click on “parcel search” and type in “sales” for the user name and “sales” for the password. This will show what other homes in your neighborhood have sold for.
• Plan a meeting. If there are concerns over the values, contact the appraiser’s office at (620) 341-3302 and set up an informal meeting.
• Present your case. At the meeting, the property owner should bring in any pictures or data to be presented to the appraisers. The appraisers also will explain how they got to the value.
MelissaE (anonymous) says...
Interesting. And of course the farmers and other taxpayers are being forced to pay more in taxes--I mean, Emporia can't keep business, they have to SOMEONE.
And, isn't Lyon County the 3rd highest-taxed county in Kansas? Why? No one ever seems to be able to answer that question. It's not Kansas City, it's not Wichita, and really, Emporia isn't even comparable to either city.....I would think that Liberal or Hayes would have higher rates than fledgling Emporia.
And don't get me wrong--I was born & raised in Emporia, I truly care.....but the cost to taxpayers is what keeps driving people away. That's not even "advanced" economics.
What's the highest paying job in town? The bakery? And that's all of probably $15/hour for someone with several years there. No wonder people leave.
Melissa
March 2, 2007 at 8:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Phil_Dillon (anonymous) says...
Melissa
You're right to ask the questions. Given the current valuations and the mill levy Emporians have to pay our taxes are higher than Wichita's, Salina's, Mcpherson's. They are just about the highest in Kansas. In fact, if our levy were applied to the average valuation home in Massachusetts the taxes there would almost double from $3700 to about $6200. What the city needs to do immediately is to lower the mill levy for residential by 8 mills and the business levy by 10. That would at least mean with the increase in valuation taxes would not go up. Then the city needs to set a goal of meeting Salina's mill levy of 24 mills (ours is currently 42).
It can be done! It'll be hard work, but it can be done with a combination of consolidations within city departments, increasing the income stream by bringing 21st century jobs to Emporia that pay 21st century wages.
You're right on target. I know you care and so do I. Too many in city leadership are saying that raising issues like high taxes, low wage, high poverty, and good paying jobs leaving gthe city is too negative. I say we have to face the reality head on and fix things and make Emporia the city we all want it to be.
Phil Dillon
Candidate for City Commission
March 3, 2007 at 4:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )