BREAKING - Seward County Treasurer Mary Rose issues statement on request made by Steve Helm for information on those who filed taxes under protest:
There has been immense speculation surrounding a recent Kansas Open Records request submitted by Commissioner Steve Helm. We can confirm that the request was made by Commissioner Steve Helm in his personal capacity.
I have hired outside counsel, Chris McGowne of McGowne Uhrich P.A. to assist me in this
matter as I wanted to ensure I did the proper due diligence before releasing the personal
information of anyone in the County.
He has reviewed the statute and spoken with the Kansas Attorney General, and he has
determined that the information must be released under the statute. We looked at every available option to protect the information of the citizens that protested the mill levy that
was rescinded, and unfortunately we are unable to redact the personal information such as names and addresses nor prevent release of the information to Commission Helm as the requesting party.
We wanted to explore every avenue to prevent release of the information, but under Kansas law we are required to release the information to Commissioner Helm as soon as payment of costs is made pursuant to the statute. We are reaching out to those individual taxpayers
to let them know the situation and allow them to explore all their options prior to release of the information to Commission Helm.
We understand that this is a difficult situation, and we do apologize to those citizens that are the subject of this request. If anyone has any questions, please contact my attorney at
Please feel free to contact my office or Mr. McGowne at anytime if you have any questions or concerns.
Mary Rose
Seward County Treasurer
Treasurer issues statement about Helm’s request for tax protester forms
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