Since Karen and Jeff Ridgway bought their central Lawrence home a decade ago, its value has increased by two-thirds. Their property tax bill has risen by a third — from $1,248 to $1,625.

Their income? Well …

“Oh no,” Karen Ridgway said. “My income has increased. But nothing like this, the way the house has.”

Add the growing expense of homeowner’s insurance, she said, and the cost of home ownership is increasingly burdensome.

“It’s very frustrating,” she said. “It’s annoying and aggravating.”

But the Ridgways may be relatively lucky.

A Journal-World analysis shows a “typical” Lawrence homeowner’s property tax bill has increased by 77 percent in the past decade, to $1,640 in 2002 from $924 in 1992.

The reason: The median value of a single-family home in Lawrence skyrocketed 83 percent in the decade, far offsetting a 3 percent decline in the tax rate.

The growth in property tax bills far exceeds the growth of the average Lawrence resident’s income during the same period. Bottom line: Property taxes are taking a bigger bite out of homeowners’ wallets.

Explosive growth

Jeff and Karen Ridgway bought their home in the early 1990s. Since then, their tax bill has grown by a third. A Journal-World analysis shows that a typical property tax bill in Lawrence has increased 77 percent during the past 10 years, while median incomes have risen by 50 percent. The Ridgways discussed their financial concerns Friday in front of their central Lawrence home.

City and county officials, who are contemplating an additional property tax rate increase for 2004, say there are many reasons for the increase in taxes: the shift of responsibility for providing services from the federal and state level; a growing demand for local services; and — this point is hotly debated — the possibility that Lawrence’s growth isn’t paying for itself.

The bright side, officials say, is that real estate has proven to be a good investment in Lawrence.

“The good feeling comes at the end when you sell or dispose of your property,” said Douglas County Commission Chairman Bob Johnson. “That doesn’t come free. Generally you have to pay for it.”

But he acknowledged: “All of this rings hollow when you’re having a tough time paying your tax bill.”

According to the Douglas County Appraiser’s Office, the median value of a single family home in Lawrence has increased from $74,500 in 1992 to $136,250.

“We used to be below average for the country, but now we’re around the middle,” said David Burress, a Kansas University economist. “It seems expensive to us, but it doesn’t seem expensive on the coasts. And housing prices have inflated faster than the general cost of living.”

Paying for itself?

The inflation appears to be more rapid in Lawrence than elsewhere. During the 1990s, the median value of an owner-occupied house rose by 60 percent in Kansas, and 51 percent nationally.

Also during the 1990s, median household income grew by 50 percent in Lawrence, to $34,669 from $22,900. For retirees on fixed incomes, Social Security gave cost-of-living adjustments totaling 31 percent between 1992 and 2002.

So the tax bill is outpacing the ability of Lawrence residents to pay for it.

Mayor David Dunfield said the numbers suggested Lawrence’s growth wasn’t paying for itself.

“The data that you’ve dug up suggests it doesn’t — even considering the ‘mission creep’ that is the result of these unfunded mandates,” he said. “Clearly, that’s open to debate and the numbers you give don’t give an absolute answer to that, but it is suggestive.”

Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s Jean Milstead disagreed.

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“I don’t see how he reached that conclusion,” she said. “What I see from this is not that growth isn’t paying for itself, but that wage earners aren’t keeping pace with inflation.”

Where it goes

Officials say Lawrence homeowners are getting more bang for their bigger taxpaying buck.

“Well, there’s certainly more services being provided than 10 years ago,” City Manager Mike Wildgen said. “We have a transit system we didn’t have. We have major public facilities that we didn’t have,” such as new aquatics centers and a new arts center, both of which have required city financial support.

And in the past decade, Douglas County has seen its law enforcement costs rise — a new jail and a juvenile detention center have both been built during that time. The new jail is bigger and more costly to operate than its predecessor; the detention center is the result of relatively new rules governing the incarceration of juveniles.

“I’ve got lots more of those” examples, County Administrator Craig Weinaug said. “Those are the most visible and obvious ones. We don’t do the same things we did 10 years ago.”

City, county and school officials say they’re spending more money than ever on services mandated by higher levels of government, or that were once provided by those institutions. At the same time, the state has withdrawn its financial support for local governments: $1.8 million from the county and $1.38 million from the city.

“The sad thing is — the city and the county, unlike the states and the feds, there’s nobody who we can pass it on to,” Johnson said. “We send it directly to the taxpayer.”

‘Underneath the bills’

But officials also said many new services were requested by the taxpayers.

“I don’t know that there’s been any contraction in the demand for services,” Wildgen said.

Dunfield and Johnson both suggested that those services made Lawrence a more attractive place to live. That, in turn, helps drive up the property values.

“I still believe that Lawrence is a great place to live because of the quality of services provided,” Dunfield said. “I have paid higher taxes for lower services in other places. To me, living in Lawrence is still a bargain.”

Karen Ridgway isn’t as sure. The value of her house has increased from $92,000 in the early ’90s to $152,000 in 2002.

“They keep raising the value of the property,” she said. “I’m not sure the house could sell for that amount of money.

“We’re doing all the things we have to do to have a comfortable retirement, and I don’t know whether we can or not,” she said. “It could reach a point where we have to sell the house to get out from underneath the bills.”