By State Rep. J. Eggleston
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On Nov. 20 the House’s COLT Committee (Committee On Local Taxation) wrapped up our summertime work on investigating what is working and what is not working regarding local sales and property taxes. I chair the committee.
No one likes paying taxes, but they are a necessary evil of funding what state and local governments do. The important thing is insuring all citizens are taxed and treated evenly and fairly.
One of the things uncovered by our COLT investigation is that Missourians are not being taxed and treated evenly. The rules of how taxes are applied, appealed, and administered by government officials vary from county to county, giving some citizens a disadvantage compared to others.
For example, most citizens get until the middle of July to appeal their property tax valuation, but citizens in moderate-to-high population counties (Platte, Clay, etc.) only get until the middle of June, which is about the same time they get their property tax info in the mail. Also, St. Louis County residents are protected from “drive-by” assessments by their county assessor, but other counties like ours are not.
I do not believe any of our area assessors have short-cut their duties, but others in our state have.
While being the chairman of this committee has kept my summer much busier than normal, I am grateful that the Speaker of the House trusted me enough to lead this effort to improve our tax systems.
Ben Franklin said that there is nothing certain in life except death and taxes. I am sure he would have agreed that while taxes are necessary, people work hard for their money and so taxes should be collected as minimally and as apologetically, and used as efficiently, as possible.