Recently the city council approved a .1 mill levy increase for those living in the city of Topeka. In my opinion they should have made a decrease in the mill levy. What I see hurting the population growth in Topeka is that the tax burden is very high in the city. Please respond if you agree or disagree and give me your reasons. Topeka needs to lower the mill levy if Topeka expects to be able to compete with nearby cities and counties that may possibly be lower in taxes. New construction in Topeka comes with “special taxes” attached to the property for streets and water services. Which means you are paying your monthly water bill plus an additional tax included in your property tax burden for water service. Also an additional tax for the road in front of your house along with the standard tax that takes care of the rest of the cities roads. These “special taxes” can last around 20 years or so. I recently moved back here from Leavenworth County where my wife and I owned a new home that was appraised at a higher value than the new one we purchased in Topeka last year. The house in Topeka is constructed better but is cheaper per square foot. We paid 1/3 less in property taxes in Leavenworth County than we do in Shawnee County even though the house in Leavenworth County is worth more. There were also no “special taxes” in Leavenworth County like there are in Shawnee County, which hurts new home construction, which hurts growth of the city. This is an example of why it is hard to attract new residents to Shawnee County and Topeka. Topeka needs to broaden its tax base, and by broaden I don’t mean raise taxes on current residents, but lower the taxes and attract new residents. Please let me know how you feel about our current tax rates and let me know in your opinion what would help attract new residents to Topeka.
- Aaron
closeAuthor: Aaron
Name: Aaron Gooden
Email: agooden@greenwaveelectric.com
Site: http://www.greenwaveelectric.com
About: Aaron Gooden was born in Topeka, KS. in 1979. He grew up in Topeka and graduated from Topeka High School in 1997. Aaron started working for a locally owned and operated electrical contractor in 1995. Aaron moved to Lawrence in 2000 and then to Kansas City in 2001 to expand the company's interest outside of Topeka. In November Aaron moved back to Topeka with his wife, Shay Gooden, their reasons were for Aaron to open an electrical contracting company, and to be closer to their families. Aaron is a Master Electrician and a small business owner.See Authors Posts (5)
- August 21st, 2008
- City Government, Topeka News
Young and old gather for Visioning meeting
By Mike Hall
The Capital-Journal
Published Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Considering the plan for Topeka being developed by Heartland Visioning will be implemented over the next 20 years, it shouldn’t be surprising an emphasis is being placed on getting young people involved.
At the first of three community meetings this week, 222 people attended the three-hour exercise.
William Beteta, Heartland Visioning executive director, Monday night said he was pleased with the turnout and issued a challenge for even larger numbers of participants at similar meetings tonight at Seaman High School and Thursday night at Highland Park High School.
After an introduction to the process by Henry Luke, the consultant who has successfully led similar visioning exercises all over the country, participants were divided into 10 breakout groups. Nine-year-old Tom Teeter, a student at Williams Magnet School, was recognized as the youngest participant, and Linda Ramirez-Gonzalez, facilitator of group No. 7, said he really did participate in the discussion.
Ryan Brokke, a sophomore at Washburn Rural High School, said he had been talking up the process to his friends and was disappointed that some said they had no interest in participating. But he was an active member of the discussion in group No. 8.
Read the rest of this entry »
- AaroncloseAuthor: Aaron
Name: Aaron Gooden
Email: agooden@greenwaveelectric.com
Site: http://www.greenwaveelectric.com
About: Aaron Gooden was born in Topeka, KS. in 1979. He grew up in Topeka and graduated from Topeka High School in 1997. Aaron started working for a locally owned and operated electrical contractor in 1995. Aaron moved to Lawrence in 2000 and then to Kansas City in 2001 to expand the company's interest outside of Topeka. In November Aaron moved back to Topeka with his wife, Shay Gooden, their reasons were for Aaron to open an electrical contracting company, and to be closer to their families. Aaron is a Master Electrician and a small business owner.See Authors Posts (5)
- June 17th, 2008
- Topeka News
Former Air Force base brings tenants to industrial park
By Michael Hooper
The Capital-Journal
Published Monday, June 16, 2008
Forbes Field, a virtual ghost town after the U.S. Air Force left in the 1970s, has evolved into a growing community of hundreds of people working in numerous other enterprises.
About 200 employees of Electronic Data Systems Corp. will move from White Lakes Center to a building owned by Chuck Lucius at Forbes Field in late summer. Lucius’ 25-employee company, Independent Brokerage, is moving this summer to 3740 S.W. Burlingame Road.
Read the rest of this entry »
- AaroncloseAuthor: Aaron
Name: Aaron Gooden
Email: agooden@greenwaveelectric.com
Site: http://www.greenwaveelectric.com
About: Aaron Gooden was born in Topeka, KS. in 1979. He grew up in Topeka and graduated from Topeka High School in 1997. Aaron started working for a locally owned and operated electrical contractor in 1995. Aaron moved to Lawrence in 2000 and then to Kansas City in 2001 to expand the company's interest outside of Topeka. In November Aaron moved back to Topeka with his wife, Shay Gooden, their reasons were for Aaron to open an electrical contracting company, and to be closer to their families. Aaron is a Master Electrician and a small business owner.See Authors Posts (5)
- June 16th, 2008
- Articles, Improvements, Topeka News
- growing business, improving, topeka
I recently moved back to Topeka from the Kansas City area. I have not lived in Topeka for about 8 years. One of the main reasons we moved back to Topeka was to be closer to our families. This, I believe, is a major reason most people decide to stay in Topeka. I’m going to give my opinion on two things that I believe is a good thing and bad thing about Topeka.
The first thing that I notice is good about Topeka is the majority of the neighborhoods in the city are nice and tranquil. A strong community feeling inside each individual neighborhood is a strength that we need to keep moving forward with as Topeka continues to grow. Strong community roots will enable the neighborhoods to stay nice and keep people accountable for their actions.
Read the rest of this entry »
- AaroncloseAuthor: Aaron
Name: Aaron Gooden
Email: agooden@greenwaveelectric.com
Site: http://www.greenwaveelectric.com
About: Aaron Gooden was born in Topeka, KS. in 1979. He grew up in Topeka and graduated from Topeka High School in 1997. Aaron started working for a locally owned and operated electrical contractor in 1995. Aaron moved to Lawrence in 2000 and then to Kansas City in 2001 to expand the company's interest outside of Topeka. In November Aaron moved back to Topeka with his wife, Shay Gooden, their reasons were for Aaron to open an electrical contracting company, and to be closer to their families. Aaron is a Master Electrician and a small business owner.See Authors Posts (5)
- June 2nd, 2008
- Getting Involved, Improvements, Vision
- topeka
