Annie Bryant has seen significant increases to her property taxes the last several years and said something has to be done to help other senior citizens struggling with this bill.
“Seniors have already worked their entire life to be retired and to live in peace till the end of their days. I mean, we’ve already paid our dues,” she said.
As these concerns continue, Eudora is weighing the potential for a property tax aid application for seniors within the community. This comes after De Soto implemented the same initiative earlier this year.
Mayor Tim Reazin brought up the potential for the city to explore this program at the Nov. 25 City Commission meeting. Reazin asked that the city hold off on collecting applications for the downtown grant program while this is investigated. He recommended using the money for tax relief rather than the usual downtown grant funding this year.
Assistant City Manager Zack Daniel said the city would come to the commission with its findings and recommendations at a January or February meeting.
De Soto’s program helps seniors, veterans with disabilities and other low-income individuals with their city property tax bills.
De Soto allotted about $25,000 for its program from the city’s franchise fees. It’s a direct correlation with the development of Panasonic since De Soto gets money back from energy companies, said Brandon Mills, De Soto’s assistant city administrator.
Mills said this idea was a vision of Mayor Rick Walker during the 2023 budget process, so he looked into ways to make it possible. Mills created and organized this project as his capstone for his KU certified public managers program.
Mills said with property values in Johnson County increasing at double the rate of inflation, the goal of this program is to keep the small-town feel in De Soto by helping to keep residents in town.
The application opened in June and closed in December. They had 56 applications with most of the checks going out in September. Only two residents’ applications were denied.
City staff collected applications then Mills went through and made recommendations to a committee. The committee was tasked with making sure Mills was accurate before sending them to the City Council for approval.
Only $600 was leftover, and Mills said overall the program was successful. They received a lot of applications right when it opened, but it began to slow after the initial launch, he said. He was worried they may exceed the $25,000 allotted, but ultimately did not. Mills said the council could have allocated more money if it got close.
The qualifications were set based on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines. For Johnson County’s low-income guidelines, a house of two is about $65,000, for a household of four, it’s about $82,000. A single person household is about $57,000.
The average property owner in De Soto, with a home value of $341,334, paid the city $773 in 2023. The total amount of property taxes paid to all government entities totaled $5,286 for the same home.
The cap for each household to receive for the city portion of their bill was $500.
The council decided to allocate the same $25,000 to the program again, so it will start up again in the spring, Mills said. This should allow the city to grant money to more applicants since the city dropped its mill levy, he said.
“It’s a direct benefit of Panasonic coming into our community,” he said.
For a lot of communities, these programs only cater to senior citizens, but with direction from the City Council, they decided to also include disabled veterans and low-income residents under 65.
“That was kind of to spread it around, you know, everyone could be experiencing financial difficulties, so we wanted to make sure we were giving everyone a fair shot at it,” he said.
The community feedback was generally positive, he said. Even those who did not qualify still seemed supportive.
In Eudora, the average home value in 2024 was $276,348, which would make the city’s average tax bill about $1,239, Daniel said.
Bryant, a senior living in Eudora, is in favor of a program like De Soto’s and said any help seniors can get with property taxes will be popular with them.
Her property taxes have increased significantly since 2015, she said. Her total bill has increased over $4,100 since then, and the city portion has increased about $1,100. The most recent bill was $1,770 for the city portion.
Bryant said she wishes the program wouldn’t be limited to income as all seniors need some help.
Bryant said she doesn’t see any downsides and thinks the community would be receptive to the program.
Many seniors are frustrated with taxes and the lack of senior housing options, leading to many moving out of the area, she said. Seniors who have been in Eudora for years are well established here, but they’re not happy, she said.
“It’s very frustrating because they can’t live, they can’t go, they can’t do because of the property tax and, every time you turn, it goes up, and these people are on fixed incomes,” Bryant said.
Seniors could see some relief at the county level as well following approval of a rebate program there earlier this fall. Douglas County is piloting a program for its portion of property taxes for seniors 65 and older and for disabled veterans. Johnson County has a similar program.
The Douglas County Commission approved $500,000 for this initiative in October. The program will provide up to $300 per household or the county portion of property tax, whichever is less.
The county expects to be able to issue 1,666 rebates at the $300 limit.
To be eligible, applicants must be in the very low-income category, meaning the total household income for a house of one would be $35,700, for two it would be $40,800 and four would be $51,000.
The county appraisal value of applicant homes cannot exceed $350,000 and has to be owned, not rented, by the occupant. Proof of income has to be provided for all living in the home.
During the October meeting, Commissioner Patrick Kelly asked if the county had any idea how many people would be interested in this program.
County Appraiser Brad Eldridge said he estimates about 20 to 50 people would walk into their offices asking about this kind of rebate, but said the county could do more marketing for the program.
Kelly said although some have asked if this is the right amount of funding, it’s important to remember it is just a pilot to see how the county can return some tax dollars to the most vulnerable populations.
“We want to put it out there, learn from it and see where to go from there,” Kelly said.
Applications for the program will open Jan. 15 and close April 15. There is no landing page for these applications on the county website at this time.
In a recent interview, Caren Rowland, another Eudora senior citizen and a Realtor, said as houses are increasing significantly in value, taxes are increasing but so are costs for homeowners insurance and maintenance costs.
Having to manage all these costs on Social Security is not easy, she said. Many have held onto their homes for decades, paid them off and retired, but aren’t able to enjoy retirement because of the costs of all these bills, she said.
Rowland also said she thinks the state and county should do more to help seniors financially. She’s seeing directly how these issues are impacting Eudora seniors.
”They’ve saved, they’ve purchased their home, they lived in it all those years to pay it off so they would have their home when they retire, and now can’t afford to stay in it. That’s what makes me so sad,” Rowland said.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].
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