Threats of rising local property taxes in Missouri

Homeownership is one of the greatest opportunities for personal wealth and savings, but our current local property tax system has become an increasing burden on Missourians.

In 1980, Missourians passed the Hancock Amendment, which requires many local governments to "rollback" their tax rates when assessed valuation of property in the district increased by more than the Consumer Price Index. Hancock was and is a valuable protection for Missouri taxpayers.

But local districts have found loopholes in the Hancock Amendment that allow them to present many taxpayers with a local tax bill just a few weeks before Christmas that they were not expecting and that some simply cannot pay.

This is not a state problem, it is a local issue determined by the work of various locally elected taxing district boards.

With many of your elected leaders in the General Assembly we have created a climate in Missouri of lower taxes, welcoming business and making Missouri a better place to live, work and raise a family. When local property taxes are driving employers out of business and the elderly out of their homes, it is time for the state to take action and to become a leader and a partner in the solution.

We can better protect, inform, and serve Missourians. All Missourians pay local property tax, whether directly or through higher rent. So, what can we do to help? First, we want to help taxpayers help themselves. Missourians should know as early as possible in the year their increase in assessment and Missourians should be given an idea of how that increase is going to affect their family or personal budget.

Currently, collectors are under no obligation to send local tax bills out any earlier than 30 days before they are due.

Taxpayers should receive estimated local tax bills early in the year in re-assessment years that shows not just the increase in reassessment, but an actual estimate of what his or her tax bill will be. This will allow homeowners, small business owners and farmers to review and potentially appeal their assessment based on information about their actual tax levy and costs, instead of just the change in assessment.

Currently, residents can appeal the reassessment based on an impact statement that does not state the levy that will be imposed on your home's value.

Reassessments are just half the story. Taxpayers should see, in dollars and cents, what their local governments are going to ask of them. Taxpayers should have time to respond to the whole story with questions and they should get answers.

Second, we must ensure that local taxing authorities respect the spirit of our voter approved Hancock limits on tax increases. Missouri families make responsible choices in their own budgets, and they expect the same of their state and local governments. Missourians should not scrape to pay their property taxes while governments become flush with cash.

Mandatory rollbacks for all taxing districts should be established and reinforced so that all taxing districts in Missouri must rollback from their previously charged rate if assessments increase by more than the Consumer Price Index.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, many of your elected representatives and I are working toward proposals that will include these ideas and more to help protect and untangle a system that has become the shadowy path to higher taxes in the Show-Me State.