Linn County, Prairie View, La Cygne Library budgets to benefit as power plant valuation soars
- Roger Sims, Journal Staff
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
By Roger Sims
LA CYGNE – When Kansas City Power and Light Co. and Westar Energy merged in late 2018, both companies agreed that the new company, Evergy, would not enact a rate increase to customers for at least five years. As a result of that agreement, the valuation of the Evergy-owned La Cygne Generating Station went unchanged.
But according to Prairie View Superintendent Joseph Hornback, recent events caused the valuation of the utility to spike. So when district officials received news of the increase from the Linn County Clerk’s office, he said he wanted to know why. A call to the state corporation commission not only confirmed the increase, officials there gave more specific reasons for the increase.
In addition to the agreement to not increase rates, the company’s exemption for the cost for the 2015 project to install scrubbers and retrofit the two smokestacks into a single stack to meet federal standards ended.
Last September, the Kansas Corporation Commission approved Evergy’s request for a 9.6% residential base rate increase for Kansas customers.
So when Linn County and Prairie View school district officials began to work on budgets for 2027 earlier this summer, they were surprised that the valuation of the power plant took a substantial leap.
“The county’s valuation this year is up $130 million this year, and most of that is Evergy,” said David Lamb, the retired county clerk who is helping the county with this year’s budget.
When preparing the budget for 2026, the total valuation of the county – including residences, farms, lake lots, railroads and the power plant – was about $338 million, he said. The utilities, including the power plant, accounted for $223 million.
This year in preparing for 2027, the valuation is $528 million, a 60% increase. The utilities portion of that is $352 million, a 58% increase.
For the county valuation, Lamb said that the valuation of real estate in the county continues to climb, accounting for a 7.45% increase over last year. Personal property was down about 24.6%, the valuation of oil and gas operations was down 53%, and state assessed property including the power plant, up just over 58%.
That increase affects not only the county budget but also Prairie View’s and the La Cygne Library’s as well as some smaller taxing entities.
For the Prairie View district, the valuation leaped from nearly $269.45 million in 2026 to about $403.76, a nearly 50% increase.
For residential homeowners who own a house with a market value of $300,000, the home has an assessed value of $34,500, with is 11.5% of the market value of the home. For purposes of the school district general fund taxes on the home, $75,000 is exempted from the tax, which leaves an assessed value of $25,875.
For the 2025-26 school year, the school district taxes on that $300,000 home was $1,329.32. Under the proposed taxes for 2026-27, the taxes would be $1,376.93 assuming the property increased in value to $350,000. If the assessed value remains unchanged, the taxes will go down slightly.
The assessed valuation for Linn County Library District No. 2 (La Cygne Library), which includes the power plant, went from $218 million for 2026 to nearly $350 million for 2027, a 60% increase.
The library, which levied a 2.66 mill tax for 2026, was forced to lower the levy to 1.65 mills to stay under the revenue neutral rate of 1.658 mills because of the valuation increase. However, the estimated tax levied appears to be able to cover most of its expenditures.
“When we first got it, we did not believe it,” said Hornback at the school board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 18. After checking with the county clerk’s office, he contacted the state about the increase, and official there confirmed the increase.
Hornback pointed out that the district collects property taxes different than the county or cities.
First, $75,000 of a residence’s value is discounted, and then the district gets a 20 mill levy across the board. After that comes the local option budget, which is capped at 33% of the general fund levy. Next comes the capital outlay fund, which can have a levy of up to 8 mills, and then the fund to pay off bonds and interest.
The district’s ad valorem tax for the 2025-26 school year was 43.561. Because of the increase in valuation, Hornback proposed dropping the levy to 38.495 for 2026-27, a decrease of 5 mills. The revenue neutral rate for the district for the new school year is 35.28 mills.
Board member Brian Lueker said he would like to meet the revenue neutral goal, and Hornback said that one place the district could cut was to lower the capital outlay line item from 8 mills to 5 mills.
However, earlier in the meeting, Hornback noted that it was better to use the capital outlay fund to keep ahead on maintaining buildings rather than delay repairs. He suggested that the 8 mill levy for capital outlay be maintained, but he said it could be lowered if the board decided to.
This summer, the board launched a multi-year project aimed at replacing the roof over several portions of the high school, auditorium and central office complex. The original high school is more than 55 years old, but the district has made other upgrades and changes, both interior and exterior, over the past few years.
The public hearing for the proposal to exceed the revenue neutral rate and the 2026-27 budget hearing are set to begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 15. The proposed budget is published on page 2 of the Journal. However, district business manager Kylee Capp said that the published form information is taken directly from the Kansas State Department of Education form, which mistakenly shows that the general fund includes a percentage below 20 mills, which is the actual rate.
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