Atchison County may offer property tax relief for 2027 budget

At the county’s 53.436-mill revenue-neutral benchmark, the county slice would be about $1,082 on a $176,057 Atchison home, about $124 an acre on farmland valued at $7,734, and about $13,359 on $1 million of commercial property. Atchison County said it will come in under that level for the 2027 budget, but higher appraisals or increases from the City of Atchison, school districts or other taxing entities can still push total bills higher.

The county posted the update July 14 on Facebook, describing the move as a possible benefit for taxpayers who have been watching local government budgets and tax rates closely. Kansas law treats the revenue neutral rate as the point where a taxing authority would collect the same property-tax revenue as the previous year.

That context matters in Atchison County, where the 2026 budget hearing document listed the revenue neutral rate at 53.436 mills, equal to $12,270,019 in ad valorem tax dollars, and said the Atchison County Board of County Commissioners had passed its intent to exceed the rate at the July 1 commission meeting. The county’s shift under the benchmark for 2027 marks a different approach as commissioners and staff build the next budget.

The county’s tax decisions affect the money that pays for law enforcement, roads, facilities, elections and emergency services, which is why the revenue neutral rate has become a recurring point of attention in Atchison. The City of Atchison says July 20 is the deadline for cities, school districts, counties and other taxing entities to tell the county clerk if they intend to exceed the revenue neutral rate and to set a mill-levy ceiling, giving the 2027 budget process a narrow window before local taxing entities lock in their numbers.