A 13 percent property tax increase to be considered next week by the Lawrence City Commission is certain to hit business owners hard.

Especially those downtown.

“Most people don’t realize that we’re taxed at a higher rate for commercial (property),” said Tom Wilcox, owner of Round Corner Drug Co., 801 Mass. “When your valuation goes up and then you have a mill-levy increase, it’s like a double whammy.”

In a year that saw commercial property valuations increase an average 5 percent across Douglas County, valuations in downtown Lawrence soared an average 15 percent. Some increased more than 40 percent.

Adding to the concerns is the fact that commercial and industrial properties in Kansas are taxed at 25 percent of their assessed value, more than twice the 11.5 percent for homes.

“I’m willing to pay my fair share, but the question is what is our fair share and how deep are our pockets?” said Mark Swanson, owner of Hobbs Inc., 700 Mass. “How many times can you go to the well?”

Such sentiment isn’t lost on City Commissioner Boog Highberger.

“If I were a business owner, I might be angry,” he said. “We’ll do everything within our power to keep the mill levy from going up, but some of it’s out of our control.”

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Highberger blames the state for 2 mills of a proposed 3.41-mill increase for the city’s 2004 budget. When the state cut millions of dollars in promised funds to local governments, commissioners were faced with having to raise taxes to simply maintain the status quo.

The city also is cutting spending and moving some expenses out of the general fund in an attempt to balance the budget.

“We’re trying to avoid the level of Enron accounting the state is doing,” Highberger said.

At the same time the city is considering a property tax increase, Douglas County commissioners are mulling a 2.89-mill increase in the county levy.

Such increases will cause business owners to make some changes, Wilcox and Swanson agreed. A tax increase will translate to higher rents for firms that don’t own their buildings, a reality that could chase more small businesses from downtown.

And it will mean higher prices for customers.

“It comes out of my pocket,” Wilcox said. “I don’t have tenants to pass it along to.”

Swanson said: “There’s going to have to be an adjustment in prices to make up for it.”