Imagine two identical houses on the same block. One carries a $6,000 annual property-tax bill. The other carries $3,000. Which one can a buyer afford to bid more for? Most buyers shop by monthly payment, not sale price — cut the tax line and some of that savings can end up bid straight into the price of the house.

Housing supply influences home prices. Home prices influence property valuations. Property valuations influence property-tax bills. Most of the property-tax debate tries to fix that last link first — while the first two links, the ones that actually drive the shortage, don't move at all.

This essay isn't an argument against property-tax relief. It's an argument that relief and housing supply have to be tackled together — because Kansas doesn't have a shortage of tax-relief plans. It has a shortage of houses.

Emporia can't pencil out the sewer lines for a small subdivision. Johnson County Wastewater needs roughly $2.9 billion in infrastructure over the next 25 years. The obstacles are different in different parts of Kansas — but property-tax relief solves none of them on its own.