Independence schools seeks 5% levy increase amid declining assessed values

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.

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With aggregate assessed property values down compared with last year, Independence School District 30 plans to raise its property tax levy for 2026 by 5%.

The ISD 30 Board of Education will conduct a public hearing Tuesday before its regularly scheduled meeting, though the final budget remains a moving target.

Aggregate real property assessed values within the district boundaries are expected to dip 6.3% for 2026, from nearly $1.40 billion in 2025 to roughly $1.31 billion, according to a Tax Rate Hearing Notice.

While personal property assessed valuations for vehicles are up slightly, it’s not nearly enough to offset the potential property-tax losses.

To compensate, the district will consider a modest rate increase, bumping the operating tax levy to $4.5891 per $100 of assessed value, a 6.1% bump from last year.

The proposed debt service levy — $0.9118 — would remain unchanged, so the district’s overall tax levy would increase to $5.5009 from $5.2372, a shade more than 5.0%.

Independence schools received nearly $84.3 million in property tax revenue last year and estimated it would collect a little more than $84.5 million, which includes $885,402 in revenue from new construction and improvements, under the proposed rate.

The 0.26% increase is well within the Hancock Amendment’s limits, but those calculations do not account for the revenue losses from Jackson County’s three-year tax-credit plan to make property owners whole after the botched 2023 reassessment.

Independence dropped a lawsuit related to the tax-credit plan in late July.

Fort Osage is still suing Interim County Executive Phil LeVota over the plan, but he confirmed Tuesday that the county was "moving forward on tax credits for every Jackson County resident that is owed. There is no pending litigation that will stop that process."

Until it's resolved, however, property owners in the Fort Osage School District will be prohibited from receiving tax credits, according to LeVota.

He said Jackson County is still calculating those tax-credit values, so it’s unclear how much of a hit Independence — and other taxing jurisdictions in the county — will take, but those losses will impact the 2026, 2027 and 2028 budgeting process.

As of July 31, the district estimated it would lose $19 million, or roughly $6.3 million a year, under the plan.

Independence’s tax-levy rate ranks in the middle of the pack among Jackson County school districts — higher than Lee’s Summit, Grain Valley, Oak Grove, Lone Jack, Center and Blue Springs, but lower than Kansas City, Grandview, Hickman Mills, Fort Osage and Raytown based on 2025 rates.

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