Johnson County commissioners direct staff to expand property tax-relief pilot, vote 7–0

Johnson County commissioners voted unanimously to direct staff to proceed with changes to the county’s property tax-relief pilot, moving to raise the maximum taxable-home value to $500,000, remove the program’s age requirement and keep income eligibility at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s "very low" thresholds while continuing a rebate equal to 100% of the county portion of property taxes for qualifying applicants.

Treasury staff presented the background and data that led to the motion. Tom Franzen of Treasury Taxation and Vehicles told the board the first year of the pilot issued about $41,000 in relief to 207 eligible applicants on a $500,000 initial fund setup and had a first-year adoption rate of 3.2. After staff removed a $200 cap in year two, adoption rose to about 5.6 percent and dollars disbursed increased substantially; the county’s current…