KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics on both sides of the state line. If you have a story idea to share, you can send Charlie an email at charlie.keegan@kshb.com.
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Johnson County, Kansas, sent letters to 254 property owners this month asking them to pay taxes the county mistakenly omitted from bills in 2023 and 2024.
The county said it did not include a tax supporting the Blue Valley School District’s general fund in statements to those properties. It did properly collect three other taxes supporing the school district.
The error applied to one “specific taxing unit” near 143rd Street and Switzer Road.
The mistake meant the county neglected to collect a total of $700,975.36 for the school district. The average property owner must now pay $2,770.65 by June 3 to make up for the mistakes from 2023 and 2024.
“We apologize for this issue, and have completed a thorough review of our tax certification process and identified additional opportunities to verify funds at an authority level,” Johnson County said in a statement.
Property owners who want to more information about the issue should call the County Clerk’s Office at 913-715-2301. The County encourages affected property owners with a mortgage to contact their mortgage company to discuss escrow options.
The Blue Valley School District said the county alerted it to the administrative error. A spokesperson said the district did not lose any funding because of the mistake.
The state of Kansas follows a formula to send school districts money. The state used other tax revenue to make up the difference during the two years impacted by the issue in Johnson County.
Johnson County pointed out it collected $1.7 billion in real estate and personal property taxes in 2024. This error impacted less than 1% of the county’s tax roll.
