Tax Valuation Error May Increase Taxes

The Tribune is reporting that there was a $1.5 million error made in the way the taxes were valued. This will require taxing entities to either raise the mill levy or tighten their budgets.

If you want to be at the meetings where the changes are going to be discussed here is a list of times:

  • FSCC — 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 15 Heritage Room
  • USD 234 — 12 noon Thursday, Aug. 23.
  • City of Fort Scott — 4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 15 City Hall

5 thoughts on “Tax Valuation Error May Increase Taxes”

  1. tell you what guys, people are not paying their taxes now and you are expecting those of us who do to pick up the tab by raising tax guidelines. All this will do is make a bigger hole than you have now! I don’t believe there has been an error, I believe there is being a gross injustice to those who are doing it right! We have no police chief for the reason we read in the paper, we have a clerical ‘error’ but not an exact explanation of exactly what or where in the posting/figuring/guesstimating, whatever. What line on what page was this $75,000.00 clerical error discovered and only after an audit? Now City Management gets a raise in the face of this error, Wow! Who made the error? Someone’s pencil or finger made this error. Who is minding the store? County Commissioners were not minding the store at the Courthouse and see another ‘error’ to the tune of $1.5 million ! What happened to the $75,000.00 budget cut for next year? Where was that cut being made? Police Chief salary and what else?
    What will you do when nobody pays taxes, will you have a tax sale involving the entire city, selling to Chia Japan or George Soro? Do you have a vision to take Fort Scott into the future?
    Who is reading this post? Who put the privilege here to reply to this short pointed notice? I am a little more than upset and in my heart I have the desire to relate to you that I feel you may not care but if I fill my desire, you will miss me!

  2. I applaud the city’s effort to get to the bottom of this debacle. SOMEONE needs to do it, as the county would rather keep us all in the dark and sweep it under the rug.

    Well said Dorothy.

  3. This county is in a sad situation. The County Commission needs a complete and total flush. They seem to think no error is a big deal no matter how much the error is costing the taxpayers. This is by far the most incompetent group of people that I have ever seen! What stinks in Bourbon County is not the Amish outhouses (and I was actually out there and I have seen more concern about this than any other issue in the county in the last 6 years) but the politics. The County Attorney seems to think nothing involving white collar crime is a big deal because what’s a few thousand dollars missing among friends and family. The other day when I went to the post office, I looked at the courthouse and then at the jailhouse and my thought was that I bet the crimes being allowed to happen in the courthouse were probably much more serious than those of the ones locked up in the jail!!! Flush the commissioners and every position that you can at the courthouse or you’ll never get the mess cleaned up!

    1. Cathy – What do you think the County Attorney could investigate if he wanted to? I’ve seen lots of talk of mistakes, but I’m not sure that being incompetent is something the County Attorney can really prosecute over.

  4. John – The County Attorney can investigate and set in place an ouster because of incompetence which would be a slap dunk. There is over $3400 missing from the cash escrow account set up for the payment plan. They claim it is just “misplaced” but everyone knows that when you balance the books, that would have shown up and so far, I have surely not heard where it is and it should have been noticed immediately, same day it disappeared! All money was held in the plan until full payment was made and less than 5% were making regular payments which means that like $80,000 just supposedly sat there. I emailed the County Attorney and told her the account needs to be gone over line-by-line. We must know what activity took place in that account as there should have been very, very few transactions where funds were removed. Some have hinted it was a “slush” fund. An escrow account is set-up normally for pre-payment. So, it is more than mistakes. The law was not followed, taxes were higher for the rest of us, properties were pulled from the sale, not mistakes either incompetence and/or willful disobedience toward the laws of Kansas which justify ouster except in Bourbon County! The County Treasurer must by law collect all monies due Bourbon County and she did not do that. She has broken more than one law, money is missing so that’s OK in Bourbon County obviously.

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