Taxes, taxes, taxes.

Many have been critical of the increases and in some opinions, excessive tax hikes in Geary County and Junction City.

City manager Allen Dinkel said that contrary to rumor, Junction City’s taxes aren’t unreasonable in comparison with other communities in the Flint Hills region. “Everybody says we have a higher mil levy than everybody around us, well city-wide, the city of Junction City mil levy is now just a smidge under Manhattan, it’s under Abilene…you know it’s the County issues that pushed it (the mil levy increase) – you know, of course, 77% of the County’s valuation is inside the city of Junction City.”

Dinkel adds that the makeup of Geary County is different than other communities. “We have two large pieces of land in our county that are tax exempt, plus we have a smaller geographic county and less ag land…so we are what we are.”

The City’s mil levy went up approximately .37 and Dinkel said this is the third year in a row that the City’s increase has been relatively low.

“If you don’t take care of some things, then they just continue to degrade…so we try to find that balance…I always get the complaint that the City taxes are too high, and it’s not the City piece that’s the problem here it’s another of the entities,” said Dinkel.

The current mil levy for Junction City is 47.714,  a .357 increase was approved in the City budget. Manhattan’s current mil levy is 46.951, going in to 2017 it increases to 48.451.

Geary County taxes adopted a 6.1 increase in the property tax levy.

Dinkel was a guest on JC Now on the Talk of JC Thursday morning where he discussed taxes and other city issues.