COLT hearing update

This summer, the Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives tasked me with chairing the Interim Committee on Local Taxation (COLT).

So far, we have held four hearings, and one of the main topics discussed has been property taxes. And one main issue revealed about property taxes is that different counties are governed by different state laws and constitutional provisions.

For example, there are 115 assessors in our state – one for every county and one for St. Louis City. Per our constitution, 113 of those assessors are elected by voters to increase accountability to the public.

If an assessor does not treat citizens right and give them fair valuations for their property, voters can vote them out. But the assessors in Jackson County and St. Louis City, two areas that have the most controversy over valuations, are appointed, not elected.

In 2009, a bill was filed in the Missouri Senate to change the Constitution to make all assessors elected. But before it could get out of committee, advocates for Jackson County and St. Louis influenced the process and got a carve-out added to the language to exclude their areas.

These advocates had sway with a large number of Kansas City and St. Louis area reps and senators (and there are quite a few of them in the legislature), and without their support the bill would not pass. The bill was ultimately passed and enacted with this carve-out. Exceptions like this happen all too often in our statutes.

Another exception relates to Hancock protection. The Hancock Amendment, which is named for the 1980’s legislator Mel Hancock who championed it, refers to the concept that no citizen should be hit with a tax increase without being able to vote on it. This taxpayer protection is now enshrined in our Missouri Constitution.

For property taxes, this means that if the assessed valuation of a property taxing district (county, school, ambulance, etc.) goes up, the maximum levy those districts can impose on its citizens must go down so that the total taxes paid into the district stay the same, relative to inflation.

Every Missourian in every property-taxing district receives Hancock protection against tax increases …except the residents of the Kansas City Public School district. Due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the 1990s, that one district is carved out of Hancock, and this year those Missourians will see a sizable increase in their property tax. Since KCPS is in Jackson County where the assessor is not elected, the tax hike is probably no coincidence.

The COLT committee will continue to investigate inconsistencies in our tax code, and prepare legislation to try to correct some of them in the next session, which starts in January.