Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Property Taxes topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Ellis County appraiser reports 3% overall valuation rise for tax year 2025, ag values fall
Summary
County appraiser Eugene Rutkos gave an update on real-estate valuations for tax year 2025, reporting roughly a 3% median increase countywide, a decline in cropland/ag-use values, and an increase in exempt property share to about 17.21% of total valuation. Parcel counts and protest deadlines were also reviewed.
Eugene Rutkos, Ellis County appraiser, presented the county’s preliminary real-estate valuation report for tax year 2025 at the April 1 commission meeting, saying the county’s median valuation change is about 3% overall while agricultural cropland values declined modestly.
Rutkos said the county records include 16,641 parcels in the valuation system; he clarified that 649 of those are personal-property manufactured homes moved into the real-estate system for valuation and that the county’s usable real-estate parcel count is about 15,992. He reported 9,702 residential parcels (parcels with homes), followed by agricultural and commercial parcels.
The appraiser reported the county’s total real-estate valuation in 2025 at approximately $3.00078 billion (figures shown in his slides) and noted that exempt property—churches, schools, county and city buildings and other exempt classes—now represent about 17.21% of total valuation, up from roughly 16.7% the prior year. Rutkos attributed part of that change to major exempt construction projects such as school construction.
Rutkos explained that agricultural land in Kansas uses an "ag-use" valuation method (an eight‑year sliding average of net income) rather than market value. With that method in effect, cropland values declined for 2025; he said ag-use valuations dropped by about $3,949,870 compared with 2024 results. Native grass/ag parcels largely held steady.
On distribution of valuation change, Rutkos said residential and commercial values rose modestly—residential about 3.3% and commercial about 2.7%—and that vacant land increases were larger in some rural ZIP codes (several small towns showed double-digit percentage changes in past years but moderated in 2025). He noted the city of Hays has an outsized influence on county totals because of its parcel volume.
Rutkos reminded property owners that valuation notices were mailed March 17 and that the protest/hearing process has a 30‑day window; he said April 15 is the final day to contact his office to schedule an appeal or to ask questions about a notice.
Ending
The appraisal office identified a small overall county valuation increase and a modest decline in cropland/ag-use values; residents with valuation questions were directed to the appraiser’s office and to the April 15 appeal deadline.
