Johnson County homeowners hit with surprise charge have more time to pay it back

During this year’s tax season, Overland Park resident Marcy Nemeth got a letter in the mail about a surprise charge from Johnson County — for $2,200. On top of that, the county wanted her to pay the sum by June 3 — giving her about five weeks at the time.

“It was a shock, not only do I have to pay this additional $2,200 by June 3, but this tax bill by May 15,” Nemeth said in April, when she received the original letter. “Fortunately, it’s not a giant amount of money, but it’s a lot and a lot on top of the tax bill coming the next day.”

Nemeth is not alone. In April, Johnson County’s Treasury, Taxation and Vehicles Department sent letters to 254 property owners who live within the Blue Valley School District, stating that the county omitted the district’s portion of property taxes from residents’ bills in error and that they owed two years of taxes that should have been paid to support the district.

The county owned up to the issue and apologized for the error but is still requiring the owners to pay the missing taxes back in full for the school district.

But to give residents more time to make the payments, the county extended its deadline to May 11, 2026.

“I guess they thought it made more sense to give us a year, which is fair. I’m glad they at least considered it,” Nemeth said on Monday, the day before her bill was originally due. “They weren’t going to give up that money and I don’t want to short the district, but I didn’t think it was fair (that) they made us pay it.”

Originally, Nemeth said she resisted paying the bill, arguing that she was protected by a local statute that didn’t require residents to pay taxes back in the case of a clerical error.

“(But) the county is saying it’s not a clerical error, they’re saying it’s an omission,” she said. “If it was something different … I’d get an attorney, but by the time I get an attorney I could pay the taxes.”

As of Monday, Nemeth said she hasn’t paid her bill, but she plans to split it up over the months into “reasonable amounts of money.”

“It’s not like I’m going to short the school’s money … but this is an issue to me. I feel like I was duped,” she said.

Blue Valley clarified that the money was owed to the state, not the district directly.

What happened?

Every year, Johnson County property taxpayers fund several jurisdictions, with school districts typically taking up the largest chunk of their bill each year. Property taxes for the school districts are split into four parts: School general, unified, bond and capital outlay, according to the county.

Johnson County discovered that Blue Valley’s general fund property taxes were accidentally left out in the original 2023 and 2024 bills for these 254 properties during its tax roll certification process this year.

The missing funds totaled about $350,000 for each of the years, making up about 0.02% of the approximately $1.7 billion collected in real estate and personal property taxes countywide, according to a statement from the county.

“This was omitted in error and we apologize for this mistake and the inconvenience this has caused,” the county said in the statement. “We have completed a thorough review of the process and identified additional opportunities to verify the data moving forward. Multiple team members have reviewed the taxing unit groups to ensure funds are accurately assigned.”

While funding for schools comes from property taxes, in Kansas, a portion of those dollars go to the state first. The state then distributes funding to districts at a set rate per student. The funds omitted from the Johnson County bills are owed to the state to fund its formula.

“These are the funds owed to the state of Kansas to fund the school finance formula,” a spokesperson for Blue Valley said in a statement. “The state funds the general formula each year. Late tax payments are a burden to the state of Kansas, not Blue Valley.”

Those impacted can reach out to the County Clerk’s Office to discuss payment options, including the ability to make monthly payments until the back taxes are paid in full. Any remaining balance after the new May 2026 due date will be considered delinquent, and property owners will owe interest.

Visit taxbill.jocogov.org to review and verify current and prior year tax statements. Property owners can call the County Clerk’s office at 913-715 2301 with questions.