Incoming WyCo lawmaker plans to keep job as mayor of other city. Is that legal?
Carolyn Caiharr is running unopposed for re-election as mayor of Edwardsville in November. In September, her Wyandotte County constituency will grow about five times larger.
Caiharr faced no challengers earlier this month when local Republican precinct committee members chose her to replace outgoing Rep. Mike Thompson, who is retiring from politics to care for his ailing wife.
House District 33 includes Edwardsville, much of Bonner Springs, the southwest corner of Kansas City, Kansas, and the northernmost tip of Lake Quivira.
“I have a lot of community support here,” said Caiharr, 43, in an interview after Monday evening’s City Council meeting. “They have seen that I’ve stood up for their concerns repeatedly, and so that’s something that I really I don’t take for granted, but I very much appreciate the community support.”
The lifelong Wyandotte County resident said she has no intention to resign as mayor of the city of just under 5,000. Unlike some states, Kansas has no prohibition on local officials simultaneously holding state office.
“A lot of people assume that the mayor’s role is like 40 hours a week or, you know, like Kansas City, Kansas, or some of these bigger municipalities that are around us. Edwardsville is very, very part-time dedication,” Caiharr said, adding that “it’s very important work and I take it very seriously.”
A realtor, Caiharr also serves on the Wyandotte Economic Development Council, coordinates the Edwardsville Historical Society and partners with Harvesters - The Community Food Network to distribute groceries to people in need in and around her community.
“That’s what I really like to do is, here are the needs of our people, and advocate for them,” Caiharr said.
She said she plans to introduce herself to her new constituents outside of Edwardsville and get to know their priorities before the Legislature convenes in January.
Property taxes
One concern she’s heard plenty about is how homeowners are struggling to keep up with their property tax bills, thanks to ever-climbing valuations.
Going into the 2025 session, top Republican lawmakers promised to deliver meaningful property tax relief and reform, but infighting between the GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate derailed plans to curb valuations, limiting progress to a 1.5 mill reduction in the state levy.
State government is funded primarily through sales and income tax revenue, whereas county and city governments rely almost exclusively on property tax revenue. That makes local officials easy targets when lawmakers want someone to blame for rising property taxes.
“There’s a lot of, ‘Well, look at what they’re doing and look at what they’re doing,’” Caiharr said.
At Monday’s meeting, the Edwardsville City Council reviewed the city’s proposed 2026 budget, which includes nearly $9.3 million in general fund expenditures — up from $8.4 million in 2025.
That’s accounting for a planned levy reduction of at least one mill.
“We have lowered our mill year after year after year,” Caiharr said. “The hard part is when the taxes are tied to your appraised value and that goes up so significantly, it’s a volatile market, and so you don’t really have predictability in what that’s going to be, and so that makes it really difficult on people.”
She doesn’t have a comprehensive vision yet for providing property tax relief, but said she’s willing to work with anyone to make it happen. The ultimate solution, she said, will require cooperation between the overlapping layers of government rather than finger-pointing.
“The fact is, in our taxing entity, we have the state, we have the city, we have the county, we have — the school district has a few different (levies) in there — we have the library and we have a community college,” Caiharr said.
“We have some that I think are more extravagant than they should be in those taxing entities. But everyone needs to take responsibility for their own and be as efficient and effective as they can in lowering the burden for their residents.”
