This may shock you, but a tax idea that was hatched in Topeka hasn’t exactly gone according to plan.

Those of you who are really good citizens — or maybe you just have insomnia and watch City Commission meetings all the way to their conclusion — know that this is the first year that local governments are dealing with a new state-imposed property tax lid.

To hear state legislators describe the lid, its purpose is to help ensure that local governments don’t raise property taxes at a rate greater than inflation, unless voters approve of the increase as part of an election.

But, in this first year of the tax lid, both the Douglas County Commission and the Lawrence City Commission are set to raise property tax rates, and neither is holding an election. So, what gives?

Well, if you’ve read social media in recent days, you may have heard an explanation from City Commissioner Matthew Herbert, who is running for re-election. A commenter on Facebook asked how the city will be able to raise its mill levy by 1.25 mills without first getting permission from voters. Herbert’s response: “My understanding is that the property tax lid rule does not allow the city to raise property taxes beyond the inflationary rate without an election. We are not raising beyond the inflationary rate.”

The commenter thanked Herbert for his quick response, and seemed to leave thinking the city wasn’t raising property taxes more than the rate of inflation. That is far from accurate.

For the purposes of the tax lid, the rate of inflation is 1.4 percent. The city of Lawrence is proposing to raise property taxes by a little more than 10 percent as part of the 2018 budget. The city’s 2017 budget called for collecting $29.7 million in property taxes. The proposed 2018 budget plans to collect about $32.7 million. I called Herbert, presented the numbers to him, and he acknowledged that he made a misstatement.

“In that context, my response isn’t accurate,” Herbert said.

The response showed a misunderstanding of the tax lid law, and I suspect Herbert isn’t the only elected official in that boat. It is a myth that the tax lid law doesn’t allow local governments to raise property taxes greater than the rate of inflation without an election. There are many exemptions built into the law that allow for property taxes to be raised far above inflation without an election. The city is using at least three of them in the building of the 2018 budget: 1. Spending for police activities; 2. Spending for fire department activities; 3. Spending to support new debt. Basically, the spending that happens in those three categories — which are really big categories for the city of Lawrence — don’t count against the tax lid.

The city is proposing to significantly increase spending in all three categories in 2018: $1.4 million for police; $2.3 million for “fire protection expenses”; and $1.7 million for debt payments, including new debt for a police headquarters facility. None of that increased spending was subject to the tax lid. As far as lids go, this one is easy opening.

The other factor in the 10 percent increase in property taxes is that home values are on the rise. The city is getting about $1.8 million in new property tax revenues simply because the city’s tax base has increased. Some of that is because of new construction in the community, but most of it is because the home you own today is worth more than it was last year.

Herbert initially told me it was unfair to attribute all the property tax increase to actions of the City Commission, given that some of the increase comes from rising home values. His argument is the city doesn’t control home values so that shouldn’t be held against the city.

That statement too shows a misunderstanding on Herbert’s part. Just because home values go up doesn’t mean the total amount of property taxes the city collects also has to go up. The city controls the property tax rate that it charges residents. If the property tax base in aggregate increased by 6 percent, then the city could reduce the property tax rate by a corresponding amount. The end result would be the city collects the same amount of property taxes as it did before home values increased.

“I suppose that is true,” Herbert said when I presented such a scenario.

True, but not likely this year. City commissioners are set to finalize the 2018 budget at a 5:45 p.m. hearing Tuesday at City Hall. Commissioners may find some cuts to make to the proposed budget, but it would be surprising if they find enough to eliminate the mill levy increase. For the record, I’m not saying they should. Taxes pay for a lot of needed services. Everyone should measure the value of those services before they immediately complain about taxes.

But on the other hand, don’t fall for any measurements that say Lawrence property taxes are only going up by the rate of inflation. Topeka’s tax lid doesn’t fit nearly that tight in Lawrence.