Everybody hates property taxes. But Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly should still veto — quickly — a new anti-tax bill that legislative Republicans just sent to her desk.
It’s an anti-democratic bill. One that would, if it becomes law, put a bare minority of voters in control of local decisions about taxing, spending and public services.
Here’s how it works: The legislation would let voters sign a protest petition if their local governments — school districts, city and county governments — exceed their previous year’s budget by more than 3%. Which probably sounds great to a lot of homeowners struggling to keep up with inflation.
Understandable.
But there’s a problematic part: If just 10% of those local voters sign the petition then the budget “shall be deemed disapproved” and the local government has to cut the budget back to the 3% inflation cap.
That’s it. No vote by the broader community. No majority approval.
Instead: One out of every 10 of your neighbors will have veto power over your local government’s spending decisions — even if, hypothetically, those spending decisions are supported by 90% of your neighbors. All you need is a few signatures.
“This bill finally puts taxpayers in control,” Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins said in a news release.
He’s only partly right. The bill puts a tiny few taxpayers in control.
In all likelihood, it gives the most reactionary anti-government folks among us inordinate leverage over the services the rest of us receive.
Accountability to community
It’s a recipe for chaos.
“In many cities the size of mine, you will always find 10% of people who will vote against the city budget,” Rep. Rui Xu, D-Westwood, told the Kansas Reflector when an early version of the bill passed the Kansas House last month.
He’s right. Xu attempted to raise the bar to 20% — his amendment failed — but that’s probably still too low.
A minority of voters shouldn’t have veto power over local officials elected by the broader community. We elect city councils and county commissions and school boards to do the day-to-day gritty work of balancing a community’s tax revenues against its needs, after all.
These folks aren’t unaware that Kansans are angry about their property taxes — they have jobs, go to church, shop in their grocery stores just like you do and I promise they hear about this stuff all the time, relentlessly — but they also have to make sure that the roads get paved, the trash gets picked up and that the classrooms have teachers. It’s tricky.
