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It has long been known that a cemetery is one of the surest forms of tax relief, but come to find out such relief doesn’t have to come with a tombstone. The volunteer boards who run the local cemeteries do a pretty good job of controlling taxes in their own right.

The Journal-World reviewed every proposed property tax rate in Douglas County ahead of upcoming budget hearings to see which local governments were having the most success at lowering or holding the line on property tax rates.

The findings were clear: The smallest of Douglas County’s governments — local cemetery boards and drainage districts — were the best at controlling property tax rates. Cities were generally the worst.

Every Douglas County-based government was required to file with the county clerk’s office their proposed 2026 property tax rates, which will form the basis of tax bills that will be mailed to property owners in November. State law requires each government to go a step further than simply listing their proposed tax rates. They also must state whether the proposed rate is higher or lower than the “revenue neutral rate,” which is the rate at which the county would collect the exact same amount of property taxes as it did a year ago.

Perhaps not surprisingly — given that we live in a world with inflation — most governments have determined they need a property tax rate that exceeds the revenue neutral rate. As their costs have increased, the governments have determined they need more tax dollars to keep up with those costs.

A significant number, though, said they could get by with the same amount of tax dollars that they had a year ago. Of the 34 Douglas County-based governments, 14 of them are proposing tax rates equal to or below their revenue neutral rates.

Some similarities emerged from the “Frugal 14.” They often were among the smallest governments in the county, the governments most focused on a single type of service — providing a cemetery or overseeing drainage projects, for example — and they were more likely to be rural based.

Likewise, a clear trend emerged about what type of governments were the least likely to keep tax rates at the revenue neutral level: Large governments. None of the cities, school districts nor the overall county government are proposing to keep tax at or below the revenue neutral levels.

But if you had to pick just one type of government that was the worst at holding the line, you could argue that it is the cities. Of the four cities in Douglas County, three of the four are proposing to raise their property tax rates. Eudora is the exception. It is proposing to keep its tax rate steady from a year ago.

In contrast, Douglas County government is proposing to lower its mill levy from a year ago, as are the the Lawrence and Baldwin City school districts. While they are lowering their mill levies from year ago totals, they aren’t lowering them enough to be at or below the revenue neutral rate, thus they aren’t part of the Frugal 14. If you are scratching your head over that, it is quite possible for property tax rates to go down but for total tax collections to go up due to rising property values. For example, if property values rose by 5% and the tax rate fell by 1%, property tax collections would still rise, given that property taxes are determined both by the rate and the value of your property.

The required reports each government recently filed, however, also provides us lots of other good information, especially if we look at current tax rates and compare them to what the governments are proposing. The Journal-World indeed compiled that additional information for each government. Here’s a look at some of the findings.

Biggest increases

Residents of two different types of district are far and away facing the biggest tax increases this year: Residents of Baldwin City and rural residents who get their fire service from Consolidated Fire District No. 1.

Baldwin City is proposing a property tax rate increase of a little more than 4.3 mills, while Consolidated Fire District No. 1 is seeking a rate increase of 3.8 mills. Those numbers mean that an owner of a $300,000 home will pay nearly $150 more per year in taxes in Baldwin City than they did a year ago. In Consolidated Fire District No. 1, the total for a $300,000 home is an additional $132 in taxes.

Next in line is the largest government in Douglas County: the City of Lawrence. Commissioners are poised to approve a 2.3 mill increase that would add about $80 per year in taxes to a $300,000 home.

Here’s a look at the largest increases, in terms of mill levy increases and dollar amounts on a $300,000 home:

• Baldwin City: up 4.316 mills, up $148.90

• Consolidated Fire District No. 1: up 3.83 mills, up $132.14

• Lawrence: up 2.348 mills, up $81.01

• Grant Township: 1.813 mills, up $62.55

• Lecompton: up 1.704 mills, up $58.79

• Baldwin School District Recreation Commission: up 0.509 mill, up $17.56

Biggest savings

While Baldwin City residents are likely to see their city tax bill go up, they have a chance to see their tax bill to the school district decline. The Baldwin City school district is proposing the largest mill levy decrease in the county. Of the 34 Douglas County-based governments, 15 of them are proposing actual declines to their tax rates. Here’s a look at the ones with largest declines.

• Baldwin School District: down 2.481 mills, down $85.59

• Lecompton Township: down 0.745 mill, down $25.71

• Eudora Township: down 0.698 mill, down $24.08

• Wakarusa Township: down 0.56 mill, down $19.32

• Willow Springs Township: down 0.493 mill, down $17.01

• Douglas County: down 0.383 mill, down $13.21

• Lawrence School District: down 0.141 mill, down $4.86

The Frugal 14

In sign of how complicated property taxes can be, just because you live in a district that has a declining mill levy doesn’t mean you are assured a decrease in your tax bill. Let’s take this hypothetical $300,000 home as an example. If your home was valued at $300,000 last year and it remains valued at $300,000 this year, and you live in a district that decreased its mill levy, you will see a property tax decrease.

But as most homeowners in Douglas County know, the value of your home is not likely to stay the same. Some years home values have been rising by 10% or more. Those type of increases have leveled off recently. An increase of 4% or 5% might be more likely today. Let’s say your $300,000 home increases by 5% for the year. It now has a value of $315,000. If your tax rate dropped from 20 mills to 19.5 mills, you are going to see a higher tax bill rather than a lower one. In that example you would have paid $690 in taxes last year and $706 in taxes this year.

To make matters more complicated, everybody’s property value changes by a different amount. Thus, if you truly want to know what your tax bill is going to do if a government approves a certain tax rate, you have to do some research and some math. And you thought taxes couldn’t get more fun.

The state’s revenue neutral formula, though, is helpful in making an educated guess about whether residents of a particular governmental district are likely to see an actual decrease in their tax bills. That’s because the revenue neutral formula takes into account how much total property values have increased — or in rare cases, declined — over the last year. Thus, if live in a district that sets its tax rate at or below the revenue neutral rate, there’s a decent chance — but not a guarantee — that you will see either steady or declining tax bill.

With that in mind, here’s a look at the members of the Frugal 14, the 14 local governments that are proposing to set their tax rates at level that will produce the same amount of tax collections as a year ago. I’ll list both their proposed mill levy total and the percent change in their mill levy from a year ago. Most have a decline in their mill levy, but you will notice a couple that actually had a slight increase in their mill levy, but still met the revenue neutral test. That’s because property values in their district actually declined from a year ago. That’s a pretty sure sign that most of the property in their district is agriculture property, which have tax values that fluctuate a lot from year to year.

• Eudora Township: 13.898 mills, down 4.78%

• Lecompton Township: 11.312, down 6.17%

• Wakarusa Township: 8.419 mills, down 6.24%

• Willow Springs Township: 9.86 mills, down 4.76%

• Clinton Cemetery: 0.783 mill, down 4.16%

• Colyer Cemetery: 0.506 mill, down 4.35%

• Maple Grove Cemetery: 0.652 mill, down 6.86%

• Rock Creek Cemetery: 0.702 mill, down 3.42%

• Stull Cemetery: 1.286 mills, down 5.65%

• Twin Mound Cemetery: 0.583 mill, down 5.97%

• Douglas County Kaw Drainage District: 0.667 mill, down 6.58%

• Wakarusa Haskell Eudora Drainage District: 0.589 mill, down 4.54%

• Wakarusa Kaw Drainage District: 1.653 mills, up 3.83%

• Weaver Bottoms Drainage District: 4.31 mills, down 0.05%

The last thing to remember about these proposed tax rates is that they are still just proposed. Each government still needs to take a vote to finalize the tax rates. At this stage of the process, governments can lower their proposed tax rates but can’t raise the rates from what has been proposed.

You can find a list of all the times, dates and locations of the upcoming tax hearings on the Douglas County Clerk’s website at dgcoks.gov/county-clerk. Click the link under the announcements tab labeled Notice of Revenue Neutral Rate Hearings 2026.