Johnson County’s property tax relief program doesn’t begin to fill the need | Opinion
Johnson County Chairman Mike Kelly appeared on KSHB 41 recently to promote the county’s expanded property tax relief program, describing it as a “major step toward easing the burden on homeowners.” The message was upbeat, confident and carefully framed: Help is coming, the county is listening, and more residents will benefit.
But the numbers tell a very different story — one that Kelly’s interview didn’t fully acknowledge.
The relief program, now in its third year, has been limited to older adults, disabled veterans and owners of homes valued under $384,600. In 2025, the county distributed “more than $150,000” in total relief to “several hundred” residents. Next year, Kelly says the county will double that amount to “more than $300,000.”
That sounds impressive until you compare it to the scale of Johnson County’s nearly $2 billion budget.
Even at $300,000, the program represents 0.015% of county spending. That’s not transformative relief. It’s a rounding error.
Yet Kelly’s interview framed the expansion as a significant achievement — a sign that the county is stepping up to help Kansas homeowners who are feeling squeezed. What went unmentioned is that the vast majority of those homeowners will see no relief at all, and those who do qualify will receive only a few hundred dollars. That’s far less than the increases driven by rising valuations.
And those valuations have been rising fast. According to county appraisal data:
- The median home value has climbed roughly 40% to 45% in the past five years, with Lenexa, Olathe, Overland Park and Shawnee most affected.
- Many neighborhoods saw 10% to 12% valuation increases in 2023 alone.
- The county’s total assessed valuation has grown by more than $10 billion over the past decade.
Those increases have helped fuel the county’s expanding budget, which surpassed $1.7 billion in 2024 and is now approaching $2 billion. Homeowners are paying more because their homes are worth more — and the county is collecting more because the tax base keeps growing.
Against that backdrop, a $300,000 relief program is not meaningful reform. It is not broad relief. And it is not the kind of structural change that would actually move the needle for most residents.
Kelly is right that older Johnson Countians and disabled veterans deserve support. But when he presents this program as a major solution to the county’s property tax pressures, the message risks becoming more smoke than substance. The relief is too small, too narrow and too disconnected from the scale of the problem to justify the fanfare.
And the gap between rhetoric and reality matters. When officials highlight small, symbolic programs as if they represent sweeping action, it creates the illusion of progress without addressing the underlying drivers of rising tax burdens. Homeowners aren’t struggling because of a lack of boutique relief programs — they’re struggling because valuations have outpaced incomes, and because local governments have grown comfortable relying on ever-expanding tax bases. A county with Johnson County’s resources could explore broader mill levy reductions, targeted caps on valuation spikes or more substantial relief mechanisms that scale with need. Instead, residents are offered a program that helps a few hundred people, while tens of thousands shoulder the full weight of rising taxes.
Johnson County residents deserve clarity about what this program does — and what it doesn’t do. They deserve an honest conversation about why a county with a $2 billion budget can only offer a sliver of relief to a small group of homeowners. And they deserve solutions that match the reality they’re living with, not the narrative being sold on television.
A county with this much revenue — and this much growth — can do better than a program that barely registers on the balance sheet.
Travis Neely is a community advocate and active member of the Citizens Council of Lenexa, a creative grassroots organization dedicated to civic engagement, local accountability and forward-thinking solutions.