May 25, 2000 -- Because the federal income tax is the biggest and usually the first tax we see listed on our pay stubs, we naturally tend to focus on it.

But state government takes a bite out of our spending money, too. Bankrate will help you stay on top of what your localities are collecting -- income, sales, personal property or investment taxes, or often a combination of all.

Here's a look at some recent tax actions across the nation.

One costly word for Kansas
TOPEKA -- The $6 million word in Kansas is "farm." That's what the inadvertent omission of that one word from a tax break bill would have cost the state before a veto corrected the problem.

The original legislation would have allowed farmers to apply their losses to previous years' tax returns, meaning the state would have lost about $400,000 annually. But when the specific beneficiary of the break was left out, the bill made every corporation in Kansas eligible for the tax relief, at a cost of $5.9 million a year.

Gov. Bill Graves vetoed the tax bill and the legislature returned to make the correction on what had been scheduled as the last, usually ceremonial, day of the session.

But the correction still will cost the state. Kansas budget watchers say taxpayers will foot the bill for approximately $26,325 in salaries and expenses for all lawmakers to make the trip back to Topeka -- and that doesn't include the at 31-cents-per-mile mileage reimbursement fee.

More tax rebates may be ahead for St. Louis-area residents
JEFFERSON CITY -- People routinely argue that they've been overtaxed, but this time Missouri officials agree. Now nearly two dozen cities, school districts and local governments may have to pay back three years worth of excess taxes.

The Missouri state auditor late last year issued a list of taxing jurisdictions that overcharged property owners in 1999. Missouri property tax rates are capped under the state constitution and adjusted every year. State auditors review the rates set by jurisdictions and certify whether they meet the constitutional cap.

Most of the over-taxing jurisdictions began repaying property owners or correcting the tax rates after the auditor's report. But a recent court ruling found that state law might also let taxpayers recover previous years of overpayment.

In March, the Missouri Supreme Court said that state circuit courts should decide whether a legal challenge of a tax rate by property owners is timely enough to warrant a refund. If the lower courts agree with the property owners who filed suits challenging prior-year overpayments, it could be costly for several St. Louis area governments.

In the most extreme case, the Missouri auditor's investigation shows that in 1998 the Special School District collected nearly $1.5 million in property tax above its legal entitlement.