By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
DeKalb County Presiding Commissioner, Kyle Carroll, says county officials saw no other recourse than to join a lawsuit against the Missouri Tax Commission to block its demand to increase the assessments for commercial property in the county.
DeKalb has joined other counties in filing suit against the commission, asking the judge to block the commission’s demand that commercial property assessments be increased by 15%.
Carroll says the timing of the commission’s order is the problem. It leaves no time for appeal and comes after local taxing entities in the county, such as school districts, are well into setting their levies for next year, according to Carroll.
“We weren’t saying to the State Tax Commission, hey, we’re not going to do this,” Carroll tells KFEQmmunity. “We’re saying, we can’t do this this year without creating all kinds of chaos.”
DeKalb County has been joined by Polk, Audrain, Pike, and Reynolds counties in the legal action against the Missouri Tax Commission. The lawsuit has been filed in Bolivar, the Polk County seat. Carroll says he believes another county will join the lawsuit.
Carroll says the DeKalb County Clerk traveled to Jefferson City to personally lobby for a delay of its order, which the Tax Commission refused to grant. The Missouri Tax Commission has ordered counties to bring property valuations within 90-110% of market rates. The Commission has threatened to withhold state funding from counties that fail to comply.
The lawsuit challenges the State Tax Commission’s authority to impose property valuation adjustments. It charges the directive undermines local control and taxpayer rights. The counties argue property value assessments should be determined locally, not by a state mandate.
Carroll says county officials feel compelled to stand up for those they represent.
“If the State Tax Commission would just get on a schedule and send out their recommendations and orders in a timely manner, we wouldn’t probably have this issue,” Caroll says. “So, I don’t think it’s going to be too hard to resolve. I don’t know how it will go on the lawsuit, but that’s why we did it.”
Carroll says the county felt compelled to take legal against the Tax Commission.
“I’m in hopes of a resolution that will be better for everybody,” Carroll says. “It’s just kind of something we had to do. We were going to either just comply and put a bunch of our folks in a bad spot or we could do what we thought we’re supposed to be doing is represent them and kind of stand up to them (Missouri Tax Commission) a little bit and that’s how you establish sometimes where the guardrails are.”
The dispute between the counties and the State Tax Commission has drawn the attention of the state legislature. The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules held a hearing in Jefferson City last week during the special legislative session to review the issue.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ