When Jacob LaTurner (R-Pittsburg) was elected to the Senate in 2012, he was one of the youngest elected members in the state. At 24, LaTurner's prior experience working as an intern for Representative Lynn Jenkins had given him a unique view of government, and he vowed to bring transparency as his first goal during his term as senator.
What Jacob LaTurner will be remembered for in his first session, however, will be the LaTurner amendment, a controversial measure which limits the ability of county governments to raise funds for operation.
The LaTurner amendment, however, is not the first stab at cutting county resources, and the end results of prior steps are still unknown.
In 2014, Senator Julia Lynn (R-Olathe) attended a town hall forum in Gardner. She was also speaking toward issues of county control, but long before the LaTurner amendment, counties were pleading for help on a change in Kansas policy regarding the Mortgage Filing Fee.
Bryan Lowry delivered the report as to the implications for cities and counties:
http://www.kansas.com/...
The nonpartisan Kansas Legislative Research Department estimated the county would lose $180,000 in the next fiscal year and $2 million when the policy is fully implemented. These estimates were based on data provided by the Kansas Division of Property Valuation and counties, according to the department.
The county projects the losses to be higher: more than $230,000 in 2015 and as much as $3.7 million when fully implemented, said Kristi Zukovich, spokeswoman for Sedgwick County. She called those conservative estimates and said the county was not consulted for the state estimates.
County and City officials in the Gardner town hall asked Senator Lynn how counties were expected to handle this shortfall. Senator Lynn argued that those issues should be handled in local elections, finally concluding "I work for the people who write the checks", meaning: property owners who paid the fee.
The LaTurner amendment provided Sen. Lynn the option to continue this path, and like many Republicans she brought up the key arguments: property tax rate increases were unsustainable in Kansas, and having them come down or capped would be a boon to the economy.
County officials, however, noted that they have been shackled from using any revenue growth methods to sustain city and county costs. As the statehouse turns over more state services to counties and cities, those entities argue their stress level is higher and the need greater.
Over the last two years, the state has systematically removed support from Kansas counties and cities. The mortgage registration fee eliminated a funding source often used for emergency services. This year, the LaTurner amendment was joined by a sunset for municipality and local government tax exemptions. This means that starting in 2019, city and county governments will need to pay sales tax on their purchases. Because a portion of the tax returns to the city/county, they end up paying themselves a part of the fee and the rest gets turned back into the state.
Rob Roberts, at the Kansas City Business Journal interviewed county and city officials as to the impact.
http://www.bizjournals.com/...
That provision would discontinue all state sales tax exemptions for government purchases, including those by local governments, he said. After the exemption sunsets in December 2019, its elimination would "raise over a half-billion dollars a year to benefit state government, with local governments being used as a means of garnering those funds.”
And, of course, the local governments will have to start paying the state sales tax — at a higher rate of 6.55 percent as a result of the Senate bill — with budgets limited by the new property tax revenue cap.
The
League of Kansas Municipalities brought up their concerns, but they had few takers.
One concern not mentioned, however, did not receive discussion until the last day of debate, when a legislator pointed out that "there are no provisions to raise revenue in case of natural disasters - a flood or a tornado. They'd still have to go back to the ballot box."
Senator Les Donovan, arguing the measure on the floor originally noted: "This should not be an amendment. This deserves it's own hearing, it is just too big."
For Kansas Republicans, the impact is exactly what what they were after.
Speaking from the floor, Sen. Julia Lynn noted: "Had this been instituted in 1997, we would have saved more than $1B in property taxes in Johnson County."
The question no one has an answer for is simple: if $1B in fewer property taxes would have been paid, would we still have the same quality of municipalities?
Kansas is about to find out.
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