Taxes are always good for an argument.

Go to some coffee shops in Lawrence, and you’ll likely hear the local sages talk about how high the taxes are in the city. Go hang out at City Hall or some other agency that survives off taxes, and you’ll likely hear how city residents are getting a good value.

But what do the numbers say? Well, you may not like the answer, but it depends on what numbers you look at. So, look at these categories, and you decide how Lawrence measures up.

Low rates

When it comes to property tax rates, Lawrence has the fourth-lowest rate of the large cities in Kansas. Our source for this is a handy publication by the League of Kansas Municipalities. It lists the total property tax mill levy for every city in the state. That means it adds up the property tax rates for everything from the city, the county, the school district (in cities where there is more than one district it is an average) library boards, and other obscure forms of government. We just looked at the 20 cities that have populations of 20,000 or more.

1. Overland Park: 109.817 mills

2. Prairie Village: 115.985

3. Hays: 119.024

4. Lawrence: 119.050

5. Wichita: 119.868

6. Manhattan: 121.022

7. Shawnee: 121.186

8. Salina: 122.550

9. Leawood: 123.372

10. Lenexa: 124.588

11. Olathe: 125.343

12. Liberal: 135.503

13. Leavenworth: 139.012

14. Garden City: 143.648

15. Junction City: 145.138

16. Topeka: 147.028

17. Emporia: 154.983

18. Hutchinson: 165.162

19. Kansas City: 167.110

20. Dodge City: 183.773

Moderate housing

The tax rate, though, is only half the equation when it comes to property taxes. The total amount you pay in actual property taxes is determined by the value of your home. There’s no perfect way to measure this for each community, but the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey did measure the median home value for each community of more than 20,000 people. So here’s a look at the median home value for each city, and then how much the tax bill would be for that average home.

1. Leawood: $380,800 value; $5,402 taxes

2. Lenexa: $216,000; $3,094

3. Overland Park: $223,100; $2,817

4. Shawnee: $200,100; $2,788

5. Olathe: $192,600; $2,776

6. Prairie Village: $204,000; $2,721

7. Lawrence: $168,700; $2,309

8. Manhattan: $162,000; $2,254.63

9. Leavenworth: $126,800; $2,027

10. Kansas City: $94,300; $1,812

11. Hays: $127,700; $1,747

12. Dodge City: $82,500; $1,743

13. Junction City: $102,500; $1,710

14. Garden City: $98,400; $1,625

15. Hutchinson: $84,100; $1,597

16. Topeka: $93,300; $1,577

17. Salina: $107,000; $1,507

18. Wichita: $109,000; $1,502

19. Emporia: $81,600; $1,454

20. Liberal: $76,800; $1,196

Low incomes

But here’s an important point about taxes — money is relative. If you make a lot of money, paying a $3,000 tax bill feels different from what it would be if you make a little.

So, we decided to factor average incomes into this equation.

Lawrence always takes a beating in this type of category because the city has many college students with little to no income — so they bring the per capita average down. But the Census Bureau publishes an average income for “full-time, year-round” workers. That takes some of the college factor out of the numbers.

Note that these income numbers are for full-time, year-round, male workers. We’re not trying to be sexist here. It is just that the Census Bureau only provides the information broken down by male and females. To average the two together would take more math than we want to do.

One other note: The Census Bureau must have got tired of counting all the money in Leawood. Its wage figure for Leawood full-time workers was “$100,000 plus.” So take that number for what it is worth.

The first number in the list is the average annual wages. The second number is the percentage of those wages that go toward property taxes.

1. Manhattan: $39,467 5.7%

2. Dodge City: $30,207 5.7%

3. Lawrence: $41,674 5.5%

4. Leawood: $100,000+5.4%

5. Lenexa: $59,394 5.2%

6. Emporia: $28,274 5.1%

7. Shawnee: $56,212 4.9%

8. Olathe: $56,000 4.9%

9. Kansas City: $36,980 4.8%

10. Hays: $36,112 4.8%

11. Junction City : $35,242 4.8%

12. Overland Park:$63,547 4.4%

13. Hutchinson: $37,357 4.2%

14. Garden City: $40,180 4.0%

15. Salina: $37,486 4.0%

16. Leavenworth: $51,409 3.9%

17. Prairie Village:$71,324 3.8%

18. Topeka: $41,116 3.8%

19. Liberal: $33,041 3.6%

20. Wichita: $44,406 3.3%

Intangibles

Of course, there are some items the numbers don’t measure well. What type of fire protection does a city provide? Are there a lot or a few retail options? Does the city water taste pure or putrid? Is Mark Twain the most recent author in the city’s library? The list could go on and on. Which, of course, means there always will be room for an argument.