Page 3 - Overview Winter 2018

Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens: Growing to Inspire
There are plans for much more at the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens, and you can be part of its future.
The Arts & Recreation Foundation of Overland Park has undertaken a fundraising campaign to construct a new Visitor Center and add more parking, outdoor gathering areas, new botanical gardens, an outdoor amphitheater and a sculpture park at the adjoining Kemper Farm.
The proposed Visitor Center will allow the current Environmental Education Visitor Center to be used as it was initially designed, as a learning laboratory for field trips and classes for school children. The Garden Café, the gift shop, and meeting spaces will move to the new building.
“We have been met with excitement and generosity as we have talked with community members over two years. Current donations exceed $5,770,000,” said Vicki Lilly, executive director of the Arts & Recreation Foundation. “This amount, plus commitments from the City of Overland Park and our Friends of the Arboretum and Friends of Overland Park Arts groups, brings the total to over $9,270,000.”
“Our goal is $12.4 million. It’s time for us to reach out to the citizens of Overland Park and ask for support,” said Jim Holland, president of the Arts & Recreation Foundation Board of Directors. “This is an opportunity for members of our community to leave a lasting legacy that will be enjoyed by generations to come. The Arboretum is a treasure that deserves our support.”
Any size gift is appreciated. There are naming opportunities ranging from benches to rooms to gardens to major elements of the plan based on donation amount. Naming can honor a family, an individual, a foundation or a business.
If you are contemplating an end-of-the-year charity donation, the Arts & Recreation Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity eligible to accept tax-deductible contributions to the full extent of the law.
For more information about how to make a gift or learn about the campaign, visit give.arfop.org or contact Lilly by email at [email protected], or call the Foundation office at 913-322-6467.
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taxes are spent. The County Appraiser’s Office website, https://jocogov.org/dept/appraiser/home, has a breakdown that is easily understood.
Several government agencies levy property taxes to fund operations.
In Overland Park, your property tax rate, depending on final valuations from the Appraiser’s Office, for 2019 should be similar to 2018, which is the lowest of any city in Johnson County, or any first-class city in Kansas. The city’s property tax rate accounts for less than 12 percent of your total tax bill.
In 2018, a $300,000 house paid about $39 a month, or $468 a year.
Capital improvements, which includes funds for streets, sidewalks and curbs, traffic signals and more, receive the largest percent of property tax revenue, followed by public safety.
Other public taxing agencies on your statement include the state, the public school district you reside within (Blue Valley, Olathe, Shawnee Mission or Spring Hill), Johnson County Community College and Johnson County government.
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