Atchison survey: residents say property taxes, streets and city communication are top concerns

City Manager Mark Westoff told the Atchison City Commission on May 2025 that a statistically significant community survey of 463 households shows growing resident concern about property taxes, local infrastructure and city communications.

The survey, conducted for the city in late 2024 and summarized by Westoff, covered neighborhood-level responses and compared results to the prior surveys in 2018 and 2021. Westoff said the survey met the project's goal of 400 responses and that the results have a roughly 95% confidence level with a margin of error of about ±4.5 percentage points.

Westoff said property-tax concern rose sharply to 67% of respondents in 2025, up from roughly 50% in 2018 and 2021. He reviewed how property-tax bills are calculated in Kansas, saying appraisal values are set by the county appraiser, assessment rates are set by the Kansas Legislature and the local mill levy is set by local taxing entities. Westoff provided the assessment rates used in the survey summary: 11.5%…