Sen. Gibbons Fights for St. Louis County Property Owners

Gibbons Capitol Report
September 14, 2007

St. Louis County Council Increases Property Taxes

This week KMOX reported "a September surprise for county tax payers" when the Democrat-controlled St. Louis County Council voted along party lines to not roll back property tax rates to counter balance increases in reassessments. They rejected a proposal by Council members Gregory Quinn and Colleen Wassinger that would have saved taxpayers approximately $6 million.

Windfalls from Reassessment

I'm picking on St. Louis County because their tax rate affects everyone who lives in St. Louis County and because they have a long history of benefiting from windfalls caused by reassessment. In an article on Aug. 22, County Executive Charlie Dooley said keeping the rate the same is “not a windfall.” He had his number cruncher figure the average tax increase paid per household and stated that an extra $35 per year per house was not a windfall. But if you add it up it totals a $12.7 million increase in what residential taxpayers are paying collectively. Plus, by leaving the commercial property tax rate the same the county will gain another $3 million on top of that.

Public Input

In August, I joined close to a hundred St. Louis County residents when they asked the County Council to roll back its residential property tax rate in the spirit of the Hancock Amendment. I commend the citizens who took the time to ask for tax relief. I also want to thank the citizen-run St. Louis County Citizens for Tax Relief Now group that is fighting to protect taxpayers. They sponsored a roll back rally and petition drive as well as continue to work to inform citizens about tax increases caused by reassessment. By getting involved in the process, they are helping to make sure taxing jurisdictions aren't benefiting from windfalls at your expense. More importantly, they realize higher property taxes caused by reassessment can push our senior citizens on fixed incomes or new families trying to afford their first house out of their homes.

Rollback Successes

For the past month, we’ve been working hard to encourage every taxing jurisdiction not operating at its tax rate ceiling to roll back. Some have rolled back consistent with the spirit of the Hancock Amendment. In the district I represent some of these “Friends of Taxpayers” include the Affton School District, the Mehlville Fire District, the City of Valley Park, the City of Kirkwood and the Fenton Fire District. I just received notice that the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District rolled back its general administrative tax as well as its sub-district taxes. Others have rolled back partially including the St. Louis Special School District, the St. Louis County Library and the City of Sunset Hills. St. Louis County was one of the last taxing jurisdictions to complete its work.

We're compiling the data and will share with you in October the full list of Friends of Taxpayers in St. Louis County. But overall, more tax districts that were not operating at their tax rate ceiling rolled back this year, meaning more taxpayers were protected and should have tax bills that are more manageable. Unfortunately, others will still be hit with the hardships from tax increases caused by reassessment. But by compiling the list of taxing jurisdictions that did not roll back and protect its taxpayers, we can help inform citizens before they return to the polls to vote for their local taxing jurisdiction representatives.

To learn more about the St. Louis County Citizens for Tax Relief Now visit their website at http://www.stlcountytaxreliefnow.com/