By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Complaints keep growing and now the Missouri House hopes to address them.
The Speaker of the House has formed the Special Interim Committee on Property Tax Reform and a local state representative will sit on it.
Rep. Dean Van Schoiack, a Republican from Savannah, is one of 20 members of the committee appointed by House Speaker Jon Patterson. Van Schoiack says the committee must balance protecting property owners from huge tax increases and the governmental functions that rely on property tax revenue.
“We’ve got to protect our 3rd and 4th Class counties from losing the funding that they need,” Van Schoiack tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post, noting county schools, fire department, ambulance districts, library boards and other entities all depend on property tax revenue.
Van Schoiack says it’s important that rural counties have representation on the committee, because property tax revenue affects counties differently. Van Schoiack says counties such as Andrew County cannot rely on sales tax revenue to replace property tax revenue.
“Most people in Andrew County come to St. Joseph and Buchanan County to do their grocery shopping, to go out to eat at restaurants,” Van Schoiack says. “Some go to Maryville. They’re close to Maryville and they go up that way. There’s a lot of people living in Andrew County who business in other counties. Take DeKalb County, for instance. The vast majority of their revenue from sales tax is from Walmart in Cameron.”
While some counties contemplate a shift to sales tax revenue to replace property tax revenue that isn’t feasible to all counties, according to Van Schoiack, who says some counties simply don’t generate much sales tax revenue.
Van Schoiack also wants the committee to take a long look at the State Tax Commission. He says the commission has forced smaller counties, such as Andrew County, to increase property assessments to market value in one step.
“And that has hit people hard,” Van Schoiack says. “They’ve contacted me and they’ve contacted other legislators about it and rightfully so. They’re upset about it and understand why. I wouldn’t like it either.”
Van Schoiack says the State Tax Commission must acknowledge the differences between counties such as Jackson in Kansas City which can rely on sales tax revenue and small counties that cannot.
Van Schoiack insists the commission doesn’t acknowledge the different makeup of counties across the state, especially the differences between rural and urban counties.
“Try to reform the way assessments are done,” Van Schoiack suggests. “I think that’s what our problem is right now is the assessment process and how properties are valued in that. And how we’re trying to make everything equal across the state when really markets aren’t equal across the state. Markets vary from one location to another.”
The first meeting of the committee is scheduled for July 16th in Jefferson City. Some meetings will be held across the state.
