What Ray Frederick Forgot to Include about Marcey Gregory

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Editor’s note: the original version of this article contained an error in arithmetic, which has been corrected.

In Sunday’s Wichita Eagle, Wichita businessman Ray Frederick wrote a letter supporting Marcey Gregory for the Sedgwick County Commission.

In listing her qualifications, he wrote “Gregory is for low taxes.” That doesn’t square with Gregory’s recent actions.

On August 11, 2008, the City of Goddard raised its mill levy — the rate at which property is taxed — by a large amount. As you can see in this image of the Goddard Budget Summary, the mill levy is increasing from 14.061 to an estimated 16.402. That’s an increase in the tax rate of 16.6%.

In her defense, Mayor Gregory says that Goddard is growing rapidly. That’s true. As Goddard grows, new property is added to the tax rolls, and the assessed value of property rises rapidly. So too does the tax revenue collected. Here’s a chart of figures from the Sedgwick County Clerk’s office showing this rapid growth:

This is something often forgotten about property taxes — at least politicians who rely on these taxes to support increased spending year after year don’t like to mention it: As new property comes into being, or as the assessor raises the assessed value of existing property, tax revenue increases.

Bob Weeks is one of the two campaign managers for Karl Peterjohn, Marcey Gregory’s opponent.

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2 responses to “What Ray Frederick Forgot to Include about Marcey Gregory”

  1. […] First, the ad, as part of a checklist of attributes or characteristics of Gregory, has the item “Lower taxes.” If she’s proclaiming that we need lower taxes, voters only need to be reminded that in August, the City of Goddard, of which Gregory is the mayor, raised the property tax rate by a large amount. She supported this tax rate increase even though Goddard, as a growing city, experiences rapidly growing assessed value, and therefore rapidly rising tax collections. (See What Ray Frederick Forgot to Include about Marcey Gregory.) […]

  2. […] Goddard Mayor Marcey Gregory, property taxes have increased under her leadership. It wasn’t long ago, so maybe that’s why Mr. Taylor doesn’t know about her […]

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