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12  AN ACT amending the homestead property tax refund act; amending
13    K.S.A. 79-4505 and 79-4508 and K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 79-4502 and re-
14    pealing the existing sections; also repealing K.S.A. 79-4520. relating
15    to the financing of public water supply projects; amending
16    K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 65-163d and repealing the existing section.
17  
18  Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
19    Section 1.  K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 79-4502 is hereby amended to read as
20  follows: 79-4502. As used in this act, unless the context clearly indicates
21  otherwise:
22    (a)  ``Income'' means the sum of adjusted gross income under the
23  Kansas income tax act, maintenance, support money, cash public assis-
24  tance and relief (not including any refund granted under this act), the
25  gross amount of any pension or annuity (including all monetary retire-
26  ment benefits from whatever source derived, including but not limited
27  to, railroad retirement benefits, all payments received under the federal
28  social security act and veterans disability pensions), all dividends and in-
29  terest from whatever source derived not included in adjusted gross in-
30  come, workers compensation and the gross amount of ``loss of time'' in-
31  surance. It does not include gifts from nongovernmental sources or
32  surplus food or other relief in kind supplied by a governmental agency,
33  nor shall net operating losses and net capital losses be considered in the
34  determination of income.
35    (b)  ``Household'' means a claimant, a claimant and spouse who oc-
36  cupy the homestead or a claimant and one or more individuals not related
37  as husband and wife who together own or rent and occupy a homestead.
38    (c)  ``Household income'' means all income received by all persons of
39  a household in a calendar year while members of such household.
40    (d)  ``Homestead'' means the dwelling, or any part thereof, whether
41  owned or rented, which is occupied as a residence by the household and
42  so much of the land surrounding it, as defined as a home site for ad
43  valorem tax purposes, and may consist of a part of a multi-dwelling or
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 1  multi-purpose building and a part of the land upon which it is built or a
 2  manufactured home or mobile home and the land upon which it is situ-
 3  ated. ``Owned'' includes a vendee in possession under a land contract, a
 4  life tenant, a beneficiary under a trust and one or more joint tenants or
 5  tenants in common.
 6    (e)  ``Claimant'' means a person who has filed a claim under the pro-
 7  visions of this act and was, during the entire calendar year preceding the
 8  year in which such claim was filed for refund under this act, except as
 9  provided in K.S.A. 79-4503, and amendments thereto, both domiciled in
10  this state and was: (1) A person having a disability; (2) a person who is 55
11  years of age or older or (3) a person other than a person included under
12    (1) or (2) having one or more dependent children under 18 years of age
13  residing at the person's homestead during the calendar year immediately
14  preceding the year in which a claim is filed under this act.
15    When a homestead is occupied by two or more individuals and more
16  than one of the individuals is able to qualify as a claimant, the individuals
17  may determine between them as to whom the claimant will be. If they
18  are unable to agree, the matter shall be referred to the secretary of rev-
19  enue whose decision shall be final.
20    (f)  ``Property taxes accrued'' means property taxes, exclusive of special
21  assessments, delinquent interest and charges for service, levied on a clai-
22  mant's homestead in 1979 or any calendar year thereafter by the state of
23  Kansas and the political and taxing subdivisions of the state. When a
24  homestead is owned by two or more persons or entities as joint tenants
25  or tenants in common and one or more of the persons or entities is not
26  a member of claimant's household, ``property taxes accrued'' is that part
27  of property taxes levied on the homestead that reflects the ownership
28  percentage of the claimant's household. For purposes of this act, property
29  taxes are ``levied'' when the tax roll is delivered to the local treasurer with
30  the treasurer's warrant for collection. When a claimant and household
31  own their homestead part of a calendar year, ``property taxes accrued''
32  means only taxes levied on the homestead when both owned and occupied
33  as a homestead by the claimant's household at the time of the levy, mul-
34  tiplied by the percentage of 12 months that the property was owned and
35  occupied by the household as its homestead in the year. When a house-
36  hold owns and occupies two or more different homesteads in the same
37  calendar year, property taxes accrued shall be the sum of the taxes allo-
38  cable to those several properties while occupied by the household as its
39  homestead during the year. Whenever a homestead is an integral part of
40  a larger unit such as a multi-purpose or multi-dwelling building, property
41  taxes accrued shall be that percentage of the total property taxes accrued
42  as the value of the homestead is of the total value. For the purpose of
43  this act, the word ``unit'' refers to that parcel of property covered by a
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 1  single tax statement of which the homestead is a part.
 2    (g)  ``Disability'' means:
 3    (1)  Inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of
 4  any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be
 5  expected to result in death or has lasted or can be expected to last for a
 6  continuous period of not less than 12 months, and an individual shall be
 7  determined to be under a disability only if the physical or mental im-
 8  pairment or impairments are of such severity that the individual is not
 9  only unable to do the individual's previous work but cannot, considering
10  age, education and work experience, engage in any other kind of sub-
11  stantial gainful work which exists in the national economy, regardless of
12  whether such work exists in the immediate area in which the individual
13  lives or whether a specific job vacancy exists for the individual, or whether
14  the individual would be hired if application was made for work. For pur-
15  poses of the preceding sentence (with respect to any individual), ``work
16  which exists in the national economy'' means work which exists in signif-
17  icant numbers either in the region where the individual lives or in several
18  regions of the country; for purposes of this subsection, a ``physical or
19  mental impairment'' is an impairment that results from anatomical, phys-
20  iological or psychological abnormalities which are demonstrable by med-
21  ically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques; or
22    (2)  blindness and inability by reason of blindness to engage in sub-
23  stantial gainful activity requiring skills or abilities comparable to those of
24  any gainful activity in which the individual has previously engaged with
25  some regularity and over a substantial period of time.
26    (h)  ``Blindness'' means central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the
27  better eye with the use of a correcting lens. An eye which is accompanied
28  by a limitation in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the
29  visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 degrees shall be consid-
30  ered for the purpose of this paragraph as having a central visual acuity of
31  20/200 or less.
32    (i)  ``Rent constituting property taxes accrued'' means 15% of the gross
33  rent actually paid in cash or its equivalent in 1979 or any taxable year
34  thereafter by a claimant and claimant's household solely for the right of
35  occupancy of a Kansas homestead on which ad valorem property taxes
36  were levied in full for that year. When a household occupies two or more
37  different homesteads in the same calendar year, rent constituting prop-
38  erty taxes accrued shall be computed by adding the rent constituting
39  property taxes accrued for each property rented by the household while
40  occupied by the household as its homestead during the year.
41    (j)  ``Gross rent'' means the rental paid at arm's length solely for the
42  right of occupancy of a homestead or space rental paid to a landlord for
43  the parking of a mobile home, exclusive of charges for any utilities, serv-
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 1  ices, furniture and furnishings or personal property appliances furnished
 2  by the landlord as a part of the rental agreement, whether or not expressly
 3  set out in the rental agreement. Whenever the director of taxation finds
 4  that the landlord and tenant have not dealt with each other at arms length
 5  and that the gross rent charge was excessive, the director may adjust the
 6  gross rent to a reasonable amount for the purposes of the claim.
 7    Sec. 2.  K.S.A. 79-4505 is hereby amended to read as follows: 79-
 8  4505. Except as provided in K.S.A. 79-4517, and amendments thereto, no
 9  claim in respect of property taxes levied in any year shall be paid or
10  allowed unless such claim is actually filed with and in the possession of
11  the department of revenue on or before October April 15 of the year
12  next succeeding the year in which said taxes were levied.
13    Sec. 3.  K.S.A. 79-4508 is hereby amended to read as follows: 79-
14  4508. The amount of any claim pursuant to this act shall be computed by
15  deducting the amount computed under column (2) from the amount of
16  claimant's property tax accrued and/or rent constituting property tax ac-
17  crued.
18  (1)                                   (2)
19  Claimants householdincome             Deduction from property tax accruedand/or rent constituting
20  At least          But not more than             property tax accrued
21  $0                $3,000                        0
22  $3,000.0          3,500                         1% of income in excess of $3,000
23  3,500.01          4,000                         $ 5 plus 2% of income in excess of $3,500
24  4,000.01          4,500                         $ 15 plus 3% of income in excess of $4,000
25  4,500.01          7,000                         $ 30 plus 4% of income in excess of $4,500
26  7,000.01                                        $130 plus 4 1/2% of income in excess of $7,000
27  $0                $3,000                        $0
28  3,001             4,000                         12% of income
29  4,001             25,000                        12% of income plus 4% of every $1,000, or frac-tion thereof,  of
     income in excess of $4,001
30    The director of taxation shall prepare a table under which claims under
31  this act shall be determined. The amount of claim for each bracket shall
32  be computed only to the nearest one dollar ($1) $1.
33    The claimant may elect not to record the amount claimed on the claim.
34  The claim allowable to persons making this election shall be computed
35  by the department which shall notify the claimant by mail of the amount
36  of the allowable claim.
37    Sec. 4.  K.S.A. 79-4505, 79-4508 and 79-4520 and K.S.A. 1996 Supp.
38  79-4502 are hereby repealed.
39    Sec. 5.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after Oc-
40  tober 16, 1997, and its publication in the statute book.
41    Section 1.  K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 65-163d is hereby amended to
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 1  read as follows: 65-163d. As used in K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 65-163d
 2  through 65-163u and amendments thereto:
 3    (a)  ``Fund'' means the public water supply loan fund estab-
 4  lished by K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 65-163e and amendments thereto.
 5    (b)  ``Municipality'' means: (1) Any political or taxing subdivi-
 6  sion authorized by law to construct, operate and maintain a public
 7  water supply system, including water districts; or (2) two or more
 8  such subdivisions jointly constructing, operating or maintaining a
 9  public water supply system; or (3) the Kansas rural water finance au-
10  thority.
11    (c)  ``Project'' means any acquisition, construction, reconstruc-
12  tion, improvement, equipping, rehabilitation or extension of all or
13  any part of a public water supply system. ``Project'' does not in-
14  clude any project related to the diversion or transportation of wa-
15  ter acquired through a water transfer, as defined by K.S.A. 82a-
16  1501 and amendments thereto.
17    (d)  ``Project costs'' means all costs or expenses which are nec-
18  essary or incident to a project and which are directly attributable
19  thereto.
20    (e)  ``Public water supply system'' has the meaning provided by
21  K.S.A. 65-162a and amendments thereto.
22    (f)  ``Secretary'' means the secretary of health and environment.
23    Sec. 2.  K.S.A. 1996 Supp. 65-163d is hereby repealed.
24    Sec. 3.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after
25  its publication in the statute book.