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Reviser outlines legal framework for property valuation in Kansas
Summary
Amelia Kovar Donahue of the Revisor of Statutes told the Special Committee on Taxation the Kansas Constitution requires a uniform and equal basis of valuation and said the legislature has implemented that requirement through a fair-market-value standard and related statutes and appraisal standards.
Amelia Kovar Donahue, an assistant reviser in the Office of Revisor of Statutes, told the Special Committee on Taxation that the Kansas Constitution requires the Legislature to provide a “uniform and equal basis of valuation,” and that statute implements that mandate by using fair market value as the baseline for most property taxation.
Donahue told the committee the constitutional provision (Article 11, Section 1) is the starting point for valuation questions, and that the Legislature has adopted fair market value and a set of statutory factors appraisers must consider. “The legislature has adopted fair market value as that uniform and equal basis of valuation,” Donahue said.
She said KSA 79‑5‑0 3(a) defines fair market value and lists the standard appraisal approaches — sales-comparison, cost (replacement cost less depreciation) and income capitalization — that appraisers should use when applicable. Donahue also reviewed statutes that require appraisals to be performed as of Jan. 1 each year and the director of property valuation’s duty to publish annual sales-ratio studies to check appraisal uniformity.
The reviser noted statutory exceptions to the fair-market-value standard. Land devoted to agricultural use is subject to use-value (KSA 79‑14‑76), and some categories of personal property — for example certain commercial machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and specialized items — are governed by different statutory approaches. She pointed committee members to several statutory citations in Chapter 79 and to appraisal directives that require compliance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP).
Donahue closed by describing appointment and credential rules for county appraisers, including statutory requirements for certified general appraiser or registered mass appraiser designations under K.S.A. 19‑4‑30, and offered to provide statutory citations to committee staff if members wanted additional detail.
The reviser’s presentation was delivered as background for committee debate; it summarized constitutional commands, the statutory definition of fair market value, appraisal methods, statutory appraisal duties and the role of the director of property valuation in issuing directives and performing sales-ratio studies.
