Sedgwick County commissioners clash over state-imposed tax limitation

Tension over what to do about a state-imposed property tax limit boiled up at Monday’s Sedgwick County Commission meeting, including a terse clash between Commissioners David Unruh and Karl Peterjohn and laughter from county staff members that visibly frustrated commission Chairman Jim Howell.

At issue is a law passed by the Legislature last year that limits the amount counties can raise from property taxes each year without putting it to a public vote.

Unruh said it’s a terrible idea that infringes on local control and prevents growing counties from gathering money from increased property values to support services to new residents and businesses.

“I need to say that I am very much opposed to this whole movement,” Unruh said. “I, along with at least 99 percent of the county commissioners in the state of Kansas, are opposed to this.”

Peterjohn, who favors it, said it shouldn’t be called a tax lid but rather a “voter empowerment provision.”

“I think that this is a provision that is overwhelmingly popular with the people,” he said.

And he offered a backhand challenge to Unruh to debate him on the issue.

“I appreciate Commissioner Unruh’s comments, and we’ve agreed to disagree many times over this, and I’d be happy to debate David or anyone else from the voter disenfranchisement side of the equation,” Peterjohn said.

When Unruh tried to respond to that comment, Peterjohn continued speaking, raising his voice so Unruh couldn’t be heard in the audience.

“If you say apply this to home rule, Mr. Unruh, will you apply it also to the sales tax ... where you have to get local approval for a county sales tax increase? That’s basically all we’re trying to do with the property tax part of this.”

Later, Unruh said he couldn’t remember exactly what he tried to say in response to the “disenfranchisement” remark, but called it “typical aggressive language” used by the board majority “to put someone (they’re) opposed to on the defensive.”

The state law at issue allows local governments to increase their annual spending by only the amount of an adjusted Consumer Price Index that will be set by the state each year. Any increase beyond that would have to go to voters in an election.

But the election dates set in the bill would be practically unworkable, and the Legislature is working on another bill to fix that.

Howell on Monday asked the county clerk, the county treasurer and the county appraiser to come up with a proposal to send to Topeka that would push tax-collection deadlines back a month to make it possible for tax elections to be consolidated with an August primary.

Unruh said he has no interest in doing that and that Sedgwick County, one of only two Kansas counties supporting the tax lid, should join the 103 counties calling on the Legislature to repeal it.

“We’ve got elected people in this room that we’re giving instruction to to come up with a plan to support a majority notion of our commission,” Unruh said. “And they’re elected people and they can have their own opinion on whether this is good or bad. And so, I just wonder about giving them orders to do our research and work for us.”

He said the rush to implement the tax lid at the Legislature is “just so they can have a mailer for their re-election.”

“If the state Legislature wants to take away our ability for home rule and impose this on us, without any restriction on their ability to tax – which is curious – I think they should present to us a bill that is workable, that we’re not under the gun, that gives plenty of time for everybody to fully understand it.”

Howell said the chance that the Legislature would repeal the bill is essentially nil.

He asked County Clerk Kelly Arnold, Treasurer Linda Kizzire and Appraiser Mike Borchard to come up with an implementation plan that the county could submit to the Legislature for inclusion in the fix-it bill.

“The three of you work together so we could come up with some language that the county could support, so that as soon as possible, in fact if it’s possible, I’d like you to do this all by Wednesday,” Howell said.

That drew a round of muffled chuckles from the audience, almost all county department heads and staff members.

“Don’t laugh at me, because I’m serious,” Howell said. “This is a fast-moving target, OK? Look, that’s two days. I know we’re talking about a couple days to work out a proposal for us to understand. ... If you can’t do it (by Wednesday’s commission meeting), just let me know. But if you can, let’s lean forward.”

Howell said if the county doesn’t weigh in soon, the Legislature could pass solutions “that are not what we would want.”

Howell also said the Kansas Association of Counties’ repeal effort is doomed.

Commissioners plan to discuss the issue again at their meeting at 9 a.m. on Wednesday at the county courthouse, 525 N. Main.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Sedgwick County commissioners clash over state-imposed tax limitation."