Lawrence’s property tax rates are among the cheapest in the state. That doesn’t mean Lawrence residents are paying less property taxes than other Kansans, however.

In May, the League of Kansas Municipalities issued a report showing that Lawrence’s 2001 tax rate — for taxes assessed by the city, county, school district and other taxing entities — for the 2002 budget year came in at 110.7 mills, or enough to get $1,910 from the owner of a $150,000 house.

Only Overland Park ($1,755) and Salina ($1,839) came in lower among the largest cities in Kansas.

The League’s report on 2002 rates was unavailable at press time, but Lawrence’s overall rate actually dropped during the year, to 104.993 mills.

A mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed valuation.

City Manager Mike Wildgen said Lawrence was able to maintain a relatively low property tax rate because of healthy sales tax receipts in recent years. A slow economy could threaten that track record, he said.

“We’ve had an active economy, that’s helped generate sales tax in certain years,” he said. “When you have a diversity of revenue sources that are growing, that keeps the property taxes stable.”

But property values are higher in Lawrence than in most of the rest of the state, and they’re going higher still. In March, Douglas County Appraiser Marion Johnson mailed 35,000 change-of-value notices to property owners across the county.

This year the average Lawrence home is valued at $154,841, according to the appraiser’s office. That’s up 8.8 percent from the $142,293 average of a year ago.

The average value for a home in Douglas County is $154,437, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier. The median value of a home statewide is $83,000, the Census Bureau reports. That means that, while Lawrence residents have lower rates, the tax burden is still high because the property values are so high.

Some commercial areas will see spikes of 10 percent to 15 percent.

“We’re all a lot wealthier this morning than we were when we went to bed last night,” County Commissioner Jere McElhaney said in March when the valuation news was revealed.

Increases of 8 percent to 10 percent are not uncommon for homes valued below $150,000, Johnson said, because that’s the hottest market in town. Few homes valued at $300,000 or more saw increases of more than 6 percent.

Given the forces of supply and demand, there’s no indication of such trends letting up, said Bob Johnson, Commission chairman.

“If you can’t buy a lot in Lawrence — or Baldwin or Eudora or (elsewhere in) Douglas County — for less than $30,000, you are hard-pressed to build a house for less than $125,000,” he said.

Of course, people don’t want to pay the taxes that go along with high valuations. Johnson said he believed 1,800 or so people will claim the county has overvalued their properties, then ask for informal hearings to get the tax-calculating numbers reduced.

So the low property tax rate may be of small consolation to property owners in Lawrence and Douglas County.

“Many, many people look at their property-tax bill,” said Wildgen, who noted that the city, county and school district all assess taxes at different rates but property owners pay all three at once. “People look at what they’re paying — the bottom dollar. That’s what’s important.”