Are Your Taxes Going Up?
Unfortunately, there's a good chance they are. Over 80 of Missouri's 114 counties have received a Memorandum of Understanding from the State Tax Commission, which is asking them to increase real property valuations in order to come into compliance with the STC's acceptable valuation threshhold. This is no longer only a Jackson County problem.
Our office has procured most of those MOUs, which you can see by clicking the links below. We encourage you to take a look and see if your county is included. If it is, you can expect your property taxes to increase - possibly skyrocket - at the end of the year.
The State Tax Commission
Most Missourians don't know much, if anything, about the State Tax Commission and its role in your tax bill or how your property taxes are determined.
First of all, the STC is made up of three commissioners appointed by the governor and approved by the senate. The three current commissioners are:
Gary Romine, Chairman
Debbie Mcginnis, Commissioner
Greg Razer, Commissioner
Their duties and responsibilites are codified in Chapter 138 of Missouri statutes.
What's most important for you to know for today is that it is their job to equalize the valuations of properties across the state in an effort to ensure one county isn't paying taxes at a rate that far exceeds or is considerably less than the others. They work with the county assessors to analyze property sales data, conducting a "Residential Sales Study" to determine the average percentage of market value.
For example, in Atchison County the Residential Sales Study result was 72.35%, meaning on average homes were valued at 72.35% of market value.
The STC has adopted the IAAO standards (International Association of Assessing Officers) which requires the valuations to be in the range of 90-110% of market value. If you are wondering why Missouri needs to adopt international standards regarding our property valuations, you're not alone.
Undervaluing Property
The problem many Missourians are about to encounter is market value of property has increased dramatically in recent years. Assessments haven't kept up and properties are being valuated significantly below the IAAO standard of 90-110% of market value. It's the STC's goal to try to get all of those counties up to the thresshold, which the IAAO deems to be "fair and equitable."
The MOU's
Memoradums of Understanding (MOU) have been issued for over 80 of Missouri's 114 counties. This is an agreement between the county assessor and the state tax commission, where the assessor is agreeing to increase the valuations as requested by the STC.
In Missouri, the assessors are able to raise property valuations by 15% without a physical inspection. If the valuation requires an increase of over 15%, an exterior evaluation is required. Ultimately, the valuation can increase without limits if a simple look at the exterior of the property is conducted. This is part of the reason Jackson County has had so many exorbitant increases and it's quite possible other counties will now experience the same.
We've uploaded the MOUs we've collected to a Google Drive so you can see if your county is included. There are three folders you need to look through.
1. Residential MOU's - These are all pertaining to residential property
2. Commercial MOU's - These are all pertaining to commercial property
3. Withheld Memos - These assessors refused to sign the MOU and because of that, the STC is recommending that thousands of dollars of state assessment maintenance plan reimbursement funds be withheld from the county
Solutions
During the upcoming special session, I'll be filing a bill that will cap the tax liability increase on residential property to 5% every 2 years. This would not eliminate the increase in valuation or assessments, but the actual tax liabilty owed. It would only apply to the primary residence and it is optional for each county to adopt, much like the senior property tax credit program.
What Can You Do?
1. Contact the governor's office and urge him to add this issue to the call for special session.
2. Contact your senator and ask they support this common sense legislation to protect home ownership & your wallets! You can find your senator's contact information here with the Legislator Lookup Tool.
