BY KEITH LIPPOLDT

klippoldt@gbtribune.com

By March 1 of each year, county appraiser’s offices across the state are tasked with completing the new valuation of properties with updated notices sent to property owners in the mail. County Appraiser Wendy Proser addressed the Barton County Commissioners at their Tuesday meeting to provide an update, and provide information on how the properties are valued.

“As a synopsis, Kansas property tax is our primary source of revenue to fund our local government services, such as public schools, our police, our fire protection and other public benefits,” Prosser said. “So our accuracy of our real estate valuations is very important to us, because the allocation of the property tax burden is based on the appraised value of each property owner’s property.

“When each property is appraised at its fair market value, as required by the Kansas laws, no owner is required to pay more than their fair share of the overall cost of their local government services. Our county values are based on their fair market values - or the sale prices of similar properties. If the properties are selling for more than the previous year, then this could result in the change in your valuation.”

Prosser further touched on the process saying that “in addition to new construction on your property, changes in property characteristics or updates, or property deterioration, could also result in a change in values.” 

She went on to explain that all appraisers offices are monitored by the Kansas Department of Revenues, Property Valuation Division (PVD). 

“Every month, PVD does an audit on the counties. They look at the sales that have been recorded in the Register of Deeds offices. Each month they look at those sell prices compared to what the county sets those values at as of January 1. Ultimately, for the offices to be in compliance, the county must have a year end ratio of being within 10% of those sale prices.”

Commissioner Barb Esfeld questioned Prosser about the findings of the valuations.

“They varied quite a bit, especially within the city of Great Bend,” Prosser said. “We had a couple of neighborhoods that saw 7% increases, some 9% and others were upwards of 20%. Our rural farmstead properties, we are seeing about a 20% increase. I believe Ellinwood and Hoisington were between the 10 and 15% increase. So they are substantial and, once again, it’s economic - supply and demand. Not a lot of new properties are being built that are sold. We have a lot of property owners that are building, but they are building to live in them. So we just don’t have a lot of new properties that are sold - or built to be sold. So it really shortens that supply chain that we have.”

Prosser said that agriculture land values are seeing another year of decreases on dry land and irrigated are going down approximately 6%, and our grassland is going up slightly, a 2.6% increase on the grass values.

Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson asked for more clarification. “Maybe go into a little more detail. I just think it’s that important. So you guys have to stay within a certain percentage of Fair Market Value?”.

“Correct. So when a property sales along with the deed, we have a sales validation questionnaire that’s filed with the register of deed that says the sale price on there,” she said. “By statute, we use those open market transactions to do our analysis to see what properties are selling for. And then when we set our values. We are supposed to be within 90 to 110% on a similar property. If all the properties are put up for sale, and your property sales, if we look at a property similar to yours that sold, we should be within 90 to 110% of that sale price. I believe as of mid-year, the ratio on our residential we were actually low, sitting about 85 to 87%. Commercial, we were just under 90%.”

Hutchinson replied, “if you’re 80-85%, that means you’re erring on the low end in favor of the taxpayer. Correct?” 

Prosser confirmed Hutchinson’s statement was correct.

But Barton County has continued to see increases in prices paid for properties, which in turn, results in increases in valuations the next year.

“If our taxpayers or property owners believe that their 2025 appraised value does not reflect a fair market value, or what they can sell their property for, we ask that the property owners call our office and schedule an informal appeal,” she said. “The informal hearings will be held via phone or in our office at the county courthouse. And by statute, you have 30 days from the mailing date. Because we mailed out on Friday the 28th, that date actually falls on a weekend, so our last date for our taxpayers to call is going to be on March 31.” 

If you’re wanting to schedule a visit to discuss your valuation, you may call the Appraiser’s Office at 620-793-1821, Also, if property owners would like to view their value before receiving the notice in the mail, the parcel search features on the Barton county website has been updated to display the new 2025 valuations.