Error at county clerk's office could have cost Prairie View $3.1 million

By Roger Sims

rsims@linncountyjournal.com

LA CYGNE – Chris Johnson was doing a cursory check of the abstract for the tax statement in the Paola newspaper last week. As superintendent of Prairie View USD 362 with more than 2,000 tax-paying properties in Miami County as well as thousands more in Linn County, Johnson was doing a double-check on the tax levy posted by the Miami County Clerk for her school district.

To her dismay, though, she discovered the mill levy listed was not only incorrect, it was substantially off the tax levy approved by the Prairie View board of education in September. It was off by more than 10 mills. That meant that if that mill levy was not corrected, the school district would lose about $3.1 million in both the capital outlay and local option budgets.

Jayhawk USD 346 Superintendent Shawn Thomas said that the tax abstract for that district was off as well, but not nearly to the extent that Prairie View's was. He said in checking with the Linn County Clerk's office about the taxes it was discovered that the district's valuation was higher than initially reported and the tax levy there was actually decreased.

The Journal attempted to contact the Pleasanton USD 344 district office but was unable to do so. Johnson also said she was unable to contact that office.

A month earlier, the Prairie View school board approved a bid for the first phase of a roof-replacement project that is expected to exceed $1 million. And the district relies heavily on the local option budget (LOB) for day-to-day operational costs. With the end of the first semester about five weeks away, a substantial loss of LOB would adversely affect the remainder of the school year.

Johnson called the Miami County Clerk Laura Epp’s office to ask about the discrepancy. But she was told that the figures they used were sent to them by the Linn County Clerk’s office. Sure enough, a staff member in the Linn County office had entered a wrong number.

“Linn County Clerk did not send us a sheet telling us what our certified taxes were,” Johnson told the Prairie View school board at its monthly meeting on Tuesday, Nov 18.

“We saw in the Miami County paper that it was wrong,” she said. “And it was wrong by a lot. As in over 10 mills lower than what we had approved as a board. So I immediately called Linn County and told them what was going on. I’ve also talked to the state department.”

“This is a big deal,” Johnson added. “If it could not be fixed, it would be over $3.1 million less that we would have received. It was a huge deal.”

The superintendent said that attorneys for both counties have been notified about the issue.

“At this point I don’t think we’re going to need a lawyer,” Johnson said, but she did not rule out that the school district could get dragged into the fallout as well.

She said that the Linn County Clerk’s office sent her a corrected certified abstract.

“They have corrected it, but it’s going to cost a lot of money for Miami County because they have already sent out tax statements,” Johnson said, adding the program they use for the tax statements won’t let them run a revised tax statement.

“So they will have to hand-calculate and hand-send out about 2,000 statements,” she said. “It’s going to take a lot of time.”

Johnson said she asked the Miami County Clerk’s office who was responsible, because the school district had provided the correct information. She was informed that Miami County has to go by the information sent to them by the “home county,” in this case Linn County, and not what Johnson sent them.

“They think Linn County should have to pay it,” Johnson said. “They made the mistake. We’re still in the middle of it all.”

She said the Miami County Clerk’s office will publish a notice in the newspaper that the mill levy was incorrect, noting that the mistake was one made by the Linn County Clerk’s office.

Johnson said the Miami County office will send out a corrected version on Jan. 9 that spells out how much taxes have been paid and how much more each property owner will owe. There will be no penalty for the late payment, but that office would like for the taxpayers to be caught up within 45 days.

The school district will get around $215,000 less at the first of the year because of the error, but it will come in later.

For Linn County residents and property owners, the wrong numbers won’t be a problem. The county clerk’s office has delayed sending out tax notices until after Dec. 1.

At the Miami County Commission meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 19, Commission Chair George Pretz read a statement following a closed door session with other county officials:

“There was no action other than a public comment to the public from the public officials and it will start at Linn County made an error that Miami County was recently made aware of this Linn County error in a mill levy rate for Prairie View School District USD 362.

“The mill levy is used to calculate a portion of the real estate and personal property taxes for Miami County residents that live within the Prairie View school district. The school board approved the correct levy rate on Aug. 26, 2025, Since Linn County is the home county of the school district, the levy amount was forwarded to Linn County representatives for further processing, i.e the county clerk, appraisers and treasurer.

“An incorrect mill levy was then inadvertently certified and forwarded to the Miami County clerk’s office to use in Miami County’s tax statements. Neither the Miami County clerk nor the treasurer were aware of the Linn County error when certifying levies and preparing tax statements for Miami County residents in the Prairie View school district which were sent out on Nov. 14, 2025, last Friday.

“The incorrect mill levy rate resulted in a tax amount being listed on statements that was lower than the correct amount. This only affected tax statements sent to USD 362 Prairie View School District residents in Miami County.

“At this time, county officials are working on a plan of action to remedy this action taken.”

At that time he did not indicate whether Miami County would be asking Linn County to cover the costs in correcting the error.