When Douglas County Commission candidates come knocking on your door, campaigning for votes, it sometimes is difficult to come up with a relevant county topic to quiz the candidates on. That shouldn’t be the case this year.

As two of the three County Commission seats are up for election, Douglas County voters should be sure to ask candidates their position on property taxes. County commissioners have just approved a 3 mill increase to the county’s property tax rate. That is higher than the approximately 0.5 mill increase approved by the Lawrence City Commission and much different from the approximately 3.1 mill decrease approved by the Lawrence school board.

Granted, a 3 mill property tax increase is not the end of the world. It may not be unreasonable, either, given that the county takes care of many duties that used to receive greater state funding than is now the case.

But something noteworthy is going on with the county’s property tax rate. The disturbing figure is not this year’s 3 mill increase, although that will be burdensome to people on fixed incomes and tight budgets. The more eye-catching number is the long-term trend. Since 2007, the county’s mill levy has increased from 29.995 mills to the recently approved rate of 44.098 mills.

For further perspective, an owner of a $150,000 home in 2006 paid $517 in county property taxes. In 2016, the amount will be $760. Chances are, that $150,000 home in 2006 has increased in value some over the last 10 years, so the actual increase in property taxes is probably even greater.

The prices of most things have increased during the last decade, so the fact the county tax bill has too isn’t surprising. But in a community that believes it has an affordable housing problem, the size of the increase is troubling. In a county that struggles to produce incomes at levels on par with the region, the increase is concerning.

The question is what to do about it.

Douglas County relies far less on sales taxes than the city of Lawrence does. Some of that is because state law limits how many sales taxes the county can have on the books. But there are ways the county could add a sales tax to its revenue mix. That may be just trading one tax for another, but it at least would be a tax that does a better job of getting revenue from visitors. But adding a sales tax to the mix only would be a benefit to property tax payers if the county used new sales tax revenues to offset current spending that is supported by property taxes.

Consolidation of government services is an approach other counties have taken. There certainly are functions that both the city of Lawrence and Douglas County perform. Law enforcement is an obvious one. Building inspections and code enforcement is another one. Consolidation is a topic that would take much study, but the rising property tax rate of the county is good evidence that we ought to have the discussion.

A review of what services the county provides, and whether they fall into the “want” or the “need” category also is likely appropriate. Growing incomes and the tax base in the county, of course, is the best answer. But that is easier said than done, and the tax bill comes due regardless of whether the community is successful in growing its tax base. Getting state government to be more fiscally responsible and to stop passing the buck to the local level would be a huge improvement as well . . . but talk about difficult.

Douglas County government is well-run with high-quality, professional administrators. Douglas County continues to be one of the more attractive places in all of Kansas to live, and that is in part due to the good local government that exists here.

Perhaps the trend of rising property tax rates for Douglas County government is not of major concern to residents. The county’s budget process gets very little feedback from the general public. If so, that is fine. Residents may feel they are still getting a good value for the services rendered.

But it would be a mistake to not recognize the trend and talk to county commission candidates about what it means and how it could be different.