Mills fail to tell of soaring spending, disparities

By ERIC MEYER

Staff writer

Although proposed tax rates are rising in aggregate only 0.9%, total government spending in Marion County — absent the county itself — is poised to rise a whopping 21.8% next year.

If budgets submitted by governmental units are adopted, proposed authorized spending by local units of government will continue a two-year trend of rising 37.9% over what actual spending was in 2019.

Huge discrepancies exist in property tax rates among similar governmental units.

Among cities, Ramona will be the most taxed, with a tax rate of 105.420 mills.

On a typical Marion County house with a median fair market value of $86,800, that amounts to a property tax bill of $1,052.30 a year for city purposes alone.

That’s 5.8 times as much as the owner of an identical home in Lost Springs will pay.

The owner of an average $86,800 house in Marion will pay $246.33 more than he or she would if the same house were in Hillsboro. Here are other comparisons:

Proposed city tax bill on median house
1. Ramona	$1,052.30
2. Lehigh	769.42
3. Marion	718.21
4. Goessel	681.69
5. Lincolnville	574.94
6. Tampa	475.23
7. Hillsboro	471.89
8. Durham	279.34
9. Lost Springs	181.35
Other cities have not yet published proposed budgets.

Part of the reason for rate disparities may be how deeply in debt cities are.

Hillsboro is the most heavily burdened by debt, with all reportable debt totaling 95.9% of the appraised value of all property in the city.

Comparing this to purchasing a new home, it would be as if Hillsboro could put down only 4.1% equity in its “house” while Marion, with a debt load of just 27.8%, would have a whopping 72.2% equity.

Both Hillsboro and Goessel have much greater debt loads that other county cities:

Debt to valuation ratio
1. Hillsboro	95.9%
2. Goessel	92.5%
3. Lehigh	28.3%
4. Marion	27.8%
5. Lost Springs	19.7%
6. Lincolnville	19.5%
7. Tampa	4.5%
8. Ramona	0.0%
9. Durham	0.0%
Other cities have not yet published proposed budgets.

Excluding the county itself, which has not yet reported, county taxing units have $38.7 million in reportable debt:

Total debt for all governmental units
1. City of Hillsboro	$16,459,822
2. St. Luke Hospital district	5,213,577
3. Hillsboro USD 410	5,205,000
4. Marion-Florence USD 408	2,895,000
5. City of Marion	2,835,531
6. Goessel USD 411	2,615,000
7. City of Goessel	1,965,000
8. Burns rural fire	570,835
9. Lake improvement district	388,710
10. City of Lehigh	193,336
11. City of Lincolnville	188,587
12. City of Lost Springs	82,420
13. City of Tampa	41,173
Other units either have no reportable debt or have not yet published proposed budgets.

Figures cited were obtained from analysis of proposed 2021 budgets submitted by governmental units to date for publication this year.

Each notice includes a time, date, and location for a public hearing at which taxpayers may question the proposal budget. At the conclusion of each hearing, the governmental unit typically adopts its proposed budget, with or without making changes to it.

Budget hearings usually are sparsely attended, and changes seldom are made.

More budget proposals will be released within the next week or two.

In the budget for the county itself, which (along with some other units’ budget proposals) has not been released yet, roads are always a major source of expenditure.

Property owners both rural and urban share the cost of maintaining rural roads, even though streets within cities are the sole responsibility of city taxpayers.

Because the county no longer employs a township system of road maintenance, most townships spend very little and tax residents even less, despite having sometimes huge property valuation bases they could tax.

If township budgets are adopted as proposed, the highest tax bill for the owner of a home with the county’s median home valuation will be in Peabody Township.

Township tax bill on median house
1. Peabody Township	$62.89
2. Liberty	54.57
3. Risley	41.09
4. Gale	26.82
5. Wilson	13.30
6. Fairplay	10.93
7. Centre Township	10.17
8. East Branch	3.95
9. Caitlin	1.96
10. West Branch	0.00
Other townships have not yet published proposed budgets.

Properties used for commercial or agricultural purposes are assessed at different rates, but the relative difference remains proportionately the same.

School districts are among the most costly units of government:

School tax bill on median house
1. Hillsboro USD 410	$617.03
2. Goessel USD 411	569.86
3. Marion-Florence USD 408	526.33
4. Peabody-Burns USD 398	496.19
Other school districts have not yet published proposed budgets.

They are by no means the only taxing entities, however. In addition to the county itself, which has yet to release its proposed budget, an array of special districts also tax county residents, depending on where they live.

Special district bills on median house
1. St. Luke Hospital district	$114.26
2. Burns rural fire district	81.35
3. Middle Creek watershed	40.32
4. Eastshore improvement	34.39
5. Cottonwood Valley drainage	33.01
6. Turkey Creek watershed	29.12
7. County lake improvement	21.23
8. Doyle Creek watershed	19.34
9. Peabody-Burns recreation	18.92
10. Chisholm Trail Extension	17.30
11. North Central Kansas libraries	14.21
12. Hillsboro recreation	13.93
. Goessel recreation	13.93
14. Whitewater River watershed	11.50
Other special districts have not yet published proposed budgets.

Taxpayers tend to watch proposed mill rates. Partly because of a property tax lid and partly because mill rates are so closely watched, these rates rarely increase much.

Proposed changes in property tax rates
1. City of Durham	+6.1%
2. Hillsboro recreation	+3.6%
3. Goessel recreation	+3.6%
4. Catlin township	+3.2%
5. Risley township	+2.6%
6. City of Lehigh	+2.3%
7. City of Hillsboro	+2.2%
8. Peabody-Burns USD 398	+1.5%
9. Middle Creek watershed	+1.4%
10. City of Marion	+1.3%
11. St. Luke Hospital district	+1.1%
12. City of Goessel	+1.0%
13. Marion-Florence USD 408	–0.1%
14. East Branch Township	–0.3%
15. North Central Kansas libraries	–0.5%
16. Whitewater River watershed	–0.6%
17. Turkey Creek watershed	–1.4%
18. Goessel schools (USD 411)	–1.6%
19. Peabody-Burns recreation	–5.2%
Other rates are unchanged or proposed budgets have not yet been released. Chisholm Trail Extension is a new district with no prior tax rate.

This doesn’t mean spending won’t increase, however. Depending on the type of governmental unit, multiple other sources of revenue exist, including sales taxes, utility fees, borrowing, and grants.

Overall authorized spending by governmental units in 2021 is set to soar over actual spending in 2019.

Two-year rise in authorized spending
1. Cottonwood Valley	6,679.9%
2. Whitewater River	4,011.1%
2. Middle Creek	2,568.9%
3. Eastshore improvement	2,095.1%
4. Turkey Creek	1,405.4%
5. Doyle Creek	1,318.1%
6. Centre Township	850.2%
7. Fairplay Township	427.8%
7. Gale Township	393.8%
8. Lakeimprovement	285.4%
8. East Branch Township	273.6%
9. City of Ramona	197.1%
10. Risley Township	194.8%
11. City of Tampa	174.2%
12. City of Durham	167.1%
13. West Branch Township	155.1%
14. Goessel recreation	122.5%
15. Wilson Township	108.6%
16. City of Lincolnville	92.4%
17. Liberty Township	87.3%
18. City of Lost Springs	84.6%
19. Chisholm Trail Extension*	83.2%
20. Caitlin Township	76.4%
21. City of Lehigh	75.3%
22. City of Marion	72.5%
22. Peabody Township	63.6%
23. Burns rural fire	41.1%
24. City of Goessel	35.0%
25. Goessel USD 411	31.2%
26. St. Luke Hospital district	30.3%
27. Marion-Florence USD 408	26.0%
28. Peabody-Burns USD 398	25.6%
29. Hillsboro schools USD 410	14.2%
30. City of Hillsboro	13.2%
31. Hillsboro recreation	8.9%
32. North Central Kansas libraries	7.4%
Other proposed budgets have not yet been released.
*Chisholm Trail Extension is a new district with no 2019 spending. The percentage increase shown is a one-year increase compared to estimated 2020 spending.