Higher taxes, lawsuit predicted by Jackson County after Missouri tax order

(The Center Square) – Jackson County leaders predicted higher taxes and litigation on Monday due to last week’s ruling by the Missouri State Tax Commission and the subsequent dismissal of a lawsuit.

Last week, the commission ordered the county to roll back 2023 property tax assessment values due to errors made by the county’s assessment department. The order came before the final day of a trial in a lawsuit filed last year by Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey. After the order, the judge granted Bailey’s request to dismiss the case.

“They provided testimony and there was nothing… it was all based on social media,” Jackson County Counselor Bryan Covinsky said. “It wasn’t working and they knew they were losing.”

Democratic County Executive Frank White said Bailey’s actions will harm taxpayers and the county hasn’t lost a lawsuit regarding property taxes in its last “seven or eight” cases.

“Let’s not forget Attorney General Bailey dismissed the lawsuit the day after his election because he was afraid to answer questions under oath,” White said, referring to a scheduled deposition of Bailey regarding possible ethics violations for conversations he had with a Republican county legislator running for Congress. “He knew he was losing this case. This is not the first time the attorney general’s office has been used for political reasons that confuse and mislead taxpayers at someone else’s expense.”

Covinsky said he will meet with political subdivisions, such as school and fire districts and municipalities, to determine the best way to legally challenge the order.

“This action they’ve taken is unconstitutional,” Covinsky said. “It’s unprecedented and it has no evidence to even prove it.”

County Administrator Troy Schulte stated any ideas of refunds aren’t accurate as 2023 taxes collected were distributed to local jurisdictions.

“There’s no way to refund money that’s been spent,” Schulte said. “There’s no way to give a credit for money that’s been spent.”

Schulte said local jurisdictions could have a tax recoupment levy to offset declines.

“If I’ve got the taxing capacity, I’m going to do that for 2023,” Schulte said, speaking as if he was a school district or municipality. “Because if I have to give a credit, I’ve got to collect the revenue to give it back. So … what you're looking at is potentially the largest tax increase because of this State Tax Commission order in the history of Jackson County, albeit anywhere in Missouri in its history. So I wanted to disabuse people that they're going to get some lovely refund check. … It’s not going to happen and in most cases it’s going to be a whole lot more.”

County Assessor Gail McCann Beatty said the county’s assessment system wasn’t properly gathering property values throughout the years as there were 54,000 2023 property tax appeals, or approximately 18% of its parcels.

“In previous years, Jackson County only had 3,000 to 4,000 appeals,” Beatty said. “That number in itself speaks to how off our values have been. If you look at St. Louis County, 40,000 to 50,000 appeals is normal. Our new normal should probably be 25,000 appeals if we are actually doing our job.”