75% of properties
pay 100% of taxes
Staff writer
Marion County has the fifth-highest percentage of tax exempt property in the state at 25.2%, according to a study by the Kansas Association of Counties.
Only Morton, at 41.7%; Riley, at 40.4%; Jackson, at 31.6%; and Clark, at 31.2%, have a higher percentage of exempt property.
The top seven counties, including Ford and Saline, had more than $1 billion worth of tax-exempt property.
Appraised values of taxable property in Marion County for 2024 were $740,977,360. Appraised values of tax exempt properties were $229,574,230.
That creates a larger burden for owners of taxable property to meet county budget needs.
Jay Hall, deputy director and general counsel for the association of counties, said that 75% of properties in Marion County pay 100% of its property tax.
“Essentially, if that other 25% of properties were paying property tax, the properties that are paying taxes right now would pay less,” Hall said.
Categories of exempt properties include churches, schools, colleges, government property, property in land banks, and wind farms.
Marion Reservoir includes 10,000 acres of tax-exempt land.
Community organizations may be granted tax exemption as well, Hall said.
Marion County has two wind farms with a state-mandated 10-year tax exemption. Both made agreements to make payments in lieu of taxes to the county and schools.
Sunflower and Diamond Vista are each paying less than $260,000 a year to the county and another $40,000 a year to school districts, county commissioner Clarke Dirks said.
In 2019, Dirks said, Expedition Wind, the company that developed what became Sunflower Wind, estimated its 72 turbines would have paid $123 million in taxes if fully taxed the first year.
That figure included equipment values, which depreciate over time, Dirks said.
Fully taxed, estimated tax revenue would have been $4.3 million dollars over 10 years, Dirks said.
This year, the wind farm would have paid $3.96 million if not exempt, Dirks said.
By the 10th year, the wind farm’s tax payment would reduce to $1.2 million.
After the 10th year, wind farm tax payments would level off at $861,000.
“If you look at it, $27 million in taxes is what we should have gotten over the first 10 years,” Dirks said. “We’re getting about 10% of what we should have gotten.”
Not all of that money would have gone to the county. It would have been split out to school districts, townships, and other taxing entities, he said.
Asked what he hoped for the fiscal year 2026 budget, Dirks said he wants a flat budget with no increase in property taxes.
“It is what it is,” he said. “We have to live with it at the county level.”
Dirks noted that organizations with tax exemptions brought other things to the county, such as workers and money.
“We need to support those that bring extra things to the county,” he said. “At the same time, we can’t expect the rest of the county residents to make up all that tax money.”