L&T Publisher Earl Watt
Yesterday I was able to present testimony to the Special Committee on Taxation about the situation we face in Seward County.
I listened to several other Kansans also share their concerns, including Ellen Riedel, a citizen who, with her husband, bought a decaying bowling alley building and brought it to life.
What did they get for their effort? A massive tax increase through valuation, from about $3,000 a year in taxes on the building to $20,000 a year.
That made the project unsustainable.
Many are unaware of the process to pay under protest. While she was offering testimony she shared the she and her husband hired an attorney but only saw a minor reduction.
Riedel was unaware of the Board of Tax Appeals, and many are not familiar with the system.
Our own Seward County Commission seemed to have little understanding of BOTA as well other than the appeals dealing with machinery and equipment issues. BOTA can also determine whether or not counties and other taxing entities follow the proper procedures, and there are complaints filed with BOTA on the dire situation the tax payers are facing here after the massive tax hike approved by commissioners Scott Carr, Presephoni Fuller and Tammy Sutherland-Abbott.
Since options are limited, it might be worth your while when you pay your massive tax bill to pay it under protest and make your case to the local appraiser and to BOTA.
Many of you cannot hire an attorney to fight this fight. You’ve stopped by and asked for help, and I feel for you. We are trying to appeal to the better side of our elected officials to revisit this injustice. It seems that is becoming less and less likely. The idea they can’t revisit a budget reduction is false. I’ve visited with Sen. Caryn Tyson, the chair of the Kansas Senate Tax Committee, and she said it is absolutely allowable by law to amend the budget.
You’ve also asked us to make your case because you are afraid if you speak up, you will face retribution, that your home will be assessed a higher rate.
I can tell you I don’t want to believe that to be true, but recent conversations have indicated that if your county government believes it can attack, embarras or smear, I’m not so sure they won’t.
I am are sure to face it, but I can assure you no matter what the county says or attempts to continually mislead the public, we will continue to inform and be a voice for those who fear either code enforcement, valuation increases or any other attack.
You have told me you don’t have the money. You are going to have to give up something else to give your money to the county.
That’s the nature of taxes, and we all get it. We want the trash picked up, to register our vehicles and our deeds, to have county roads maintained and all of the other services we need.
Not want. Need.
No one is expecting that we would be tax free.
But we have to fight for better protections for the people. Some believe Donald Trump is a threat to their rights, and you can read that letter on this page. But Trump didn’t enact a record tax increase on Seward County. That happened in our own back yard by people we trusted to represent us in elected office right here.
Sutherland-Abbott ran on a commitment to the people she would not raise taxes, that was until she decided she would. Promises aren’t made to win elections. They are made for accountability, that when the pressure came to increase the burden on the people she should have stuck to her pledge.
And perhaps there’s a difference between a little white lie and a whopper.
Had a smaller amount of a tax increase been proposed, it is not doubt there would have been votes to pass it without Sutherland-Abbott. She had a choice between her word and her ego. She chose the latter in her own admission when she said, “I wouldn’t vote for this unless I believed it was the right thing to do.”
She believed.
She didn’t say you told her to go back on her word. She didn’t say there was overwhelming pressure from the public to choose a heavier burden.
She believed abandoning principle was more important.
Where do you go with that? Had she placed the power in the hands of the people and called for a public vote, that might have been different. But she didn’t do that. She spoke for those of us in her district despite the pledge that garnered her the office.
This is why we have to support the statewide effort to rein in out-of-control local government. We have to support an amendment that ties the hands of rogue commissioners in Kansas and their hired hands who only see the people as a source of cash for their benefit. The proposal for valuation caps alongside revenue caps will protect us from unresponsive leadership in the future. And we must also push for the ability of the people to speak out against government action through petition and public votes. We do not have liberty and justice as long as electing a three-headed tyrant can go unchecked.
When elected officials abdicate their role of representing the people and become the overlords of the people, Kansans have no way to cry out for justice. We must demand our state lawmakers create a mechanism that allows public input.
Every citizen of Seward County will remain a hostage until they can once again establish a local body that answers to the people rather than be appointed for a four-year reign of terror. For now, that election seems a million miles away as all economic development, housing and hope will dry up thanks to the irresponsible action of three.
We cannot have short memories this time. We must remember they had a chance to listen and chose to ignore. They had a chance to receive public input rather than dismiss it with twisted opinions from staff leadership.
Remember, remember the 15th of September. That was the day you were ignored, that your property was taxed to the point many of you could no longer bear. That was the day when you appealed for reason and were rejected outright.
We cannot forget Tax Oppression Day in Seward County, and the only recourse that exists for now will be Election Day 2026.
The fight for justice continues, but those answers may take time. Don’t lose heart. We are doing everything we can.
