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Panel hears bill to expand property-tax freeze, exclude Social Security from income test
Summary
The Kansas Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 2215, which would exclude federal Social Security benefits from household income, raise the household income cap to $80,000, and raise the base-year homestead appraised-value limit to $595,000 with a new annual adjustment beginning after 2025. The committee closed a
Amelia, a committee bill presenter, told the Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee that Senate Bill 2215 would amend K.S.A. 79-4508(a) to change eligibility for the state'property-tax freeze (a rebate program). The bill would exclude all payments under the Federal Social Security Act from the definition of household income, raise the claimant household-income upper limit to $80,000, and increase the base-year homestead appraised-value cap to $595,000, with an annual adjustment to that appraised-value threshold for base years commencing after 2025. Amelia said the income and appraised-value changes would apply beginning with tax year 2025 and that the bill would take effect upon publication in the statute book.
Kathleen Smith, with the Department of Revenue, answered committee questions about program mechanics and eligibility. "Once you're in the program, you are in the program," Smith said, describing how the statute treats an established base year. Smith also confirmed that the current law already adjusts the household-income limit by a cost-of-living adjustment and that the proposed bill would continue that COLA for income while adding a separate inflation adjustment for the appraised-value cap based on the preceding 10 years of statewide residential valuations.
Members asked how the rebate is calculated and how eligibility interacts with changes in income. Amelia described the program as a property-tax freeze administered as a rebate: the payment equals the difference between the claimant'year tax amount and the base-year tax amount. Committee members pressed whether a person who later has higher income would retain a base year but not necessarily receive a refund in years they exceed the income threshold; Amelia and Kathleen Smith agreed that eligibility to receive the rebate still requires meeting the income standard for the claim year.
Military Officers Association of America representative Mike Kelly urged the committee to consider excluding additional U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs benefits from household-income calculations. "I would urge the committee to consider 38 CFR 3.3 payments," Kelly said, and he asked the committee to consider exclusions for pension and dependency payments under Title 38 (citing 38 CFR 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5).
Committee members and the presenter noted written testimony on the bill from Glenda Du Bois, Mike Kelly, Penny Lowell and Mark Toome. The committee closed the hearing on Senate Bill 2215; no committee vote on the bill was recorded during this meeting.
If enacted as described in committee, the bill would (1) remove Social Security benefits from household-income calculations for the property-tax freeze program, (2) increase and index the household-income and appraised-value eligibility thresholds, and (3) apply those changes beginning with tax year 2025. The committee requested fiscal analysis and said staff would follow up for clarifications before any further action.
