As part of the ongoing saga of the 2023 Jackson County reassessment debacle, the Missouri State Tax Commission (STC) ordered Jackson County to lower all residential assessed valuations with an increase of fifteen percent or more to fifteen percent, which is the legal cutoff for additional inspection requirements by counties. Jackson County had completely failed to comply with the basic laws and rules for notifying property owners of their rights and deadlines as part of the reassessment process. It is not that the assessment increases are too high (although some no doubt are), but that the entire process violated the rights of the property owners who saw larger increases.
Many homeowners in Jackson County had seen their reassessments increase by more than fifteen percent, so this order by the STC was no small thing. Because of the major impacts on tax revenues for various local governments, the county sued the STC to stop the order. The judge ruled the other day, and the county lost.
The county will likely appeal this ruling, but the facts are pretty clear here. The Jackson County Assessor’s Office did not adhere to the requirements of the process, and property owners were harmed by it. I don’t see any way the appeals court changes this ruling (I am not a lawyer), unless the judges decide that the harm to the taxing districts overrides the rights of the property owners.
I have been writing about the history and issues of property reassessments in Jackson County for a long time. One hundred and thirteen counties can get their reassessments done correctly, and one can’t, so the problem is more with the management in Jackson County itself than with the reassessment process overall. Better management of the Jackson County Assessor’s Office is the first needed change. Beyond that, some policy changes are needed for Jackson County, including:
- Electing the assessor (Jackson is the only county in the state with an appointed assessor); and
- Removing the tax rate rollback exemption for the Kansas City 33 School District.
Jackson County may have been underassessed overall, but that doesn’t excuse the county from complying with the reassessment process laws. If the county appeals, I hope it loses again, and quickly.
