News Release
The Unified Government Board of Commissioners is waiving all building permit fees, inspection fees and sewer connection fees for new single family home construction beginning this month through December 2013. The move is designed to spark a renewed wave of home construction to meet the demand created by thousands of new jobs coming to Wyandotte County.
With construction of the Cerner Continuous Campus and the hiring of 4,000 new employees, the market for new housing will increase. The Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway has already created 1,000 new, full-time permanent jobs.
“Creating a budget and policies which encourage more development, more new jobs and more new housing is critical,” said County Administrator Dennis Hays.
Wyandotte County is experiencing a surge in new residential construction with a 34% increase over last year. More than 300 new apartment units near Village West are planned with more in the works.
The 2013 Unified Government Budget also takes major steps to make living in Wyandotte County more affordable. 71% of homeowners will see their Unified Government property tax bill go down. 27% will see no change from last year.
In addition to lowering most residential tax bills, the 2013 Unified Government Budget calls for ending the payment-in lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) fee which appears on the electric and water bills for Board of Public Utilities customers in Wyandotte County. The move could save utility customers nearly $10-million over the next five years based on estimated rate increases.
The 2013 budget also allocates $2-million for launch of the Community Neighborhood Infrastructure Program to build sidewalks, curbs and other neighborhood improvements. Commissioners will select neighborhood projects for each of their districts in 2012 with construction in 2013.
The cycle will repeat with Commissioners selecting more neighborhood projects in 2014 with an additional $2-million to be budgeted for construction in 2015. This program is funded with the Public Safety and Community Improvement Sales Tax approved by voters in 2010.
Overall assessed value of real property in Wyandotte County is increasing after several years of substantial declines. Residential property values are still lower than before the recession, but are stabilizing. New commercial and industrial developments are pushing overall valuations up. Assessed values have increased 1.6% in Wyandotte County and 2% in KCK.
The Unified Government receives only 47% of the total tax bill paid by a resident in the KCK school district. A resident in the Turner school district pays only 43% of their total tax bill to the UG. In the Piper school district, 48% of the taxes paid by a homeowner are used by the Unified Government.
Public schools, the Kansas City Kansas Community College, KCK Public Library and State of Kansas make up the largest portion of the tax bill. The current city/county property tax rate is still much lower than before the Unified Government was created. Back then it was 97 mills. Now it’s 81.6 mills. That’s 16% less than 15 years ago.
