AIM and TRIM Commend Governor and Lawmakers for Real Property Tax Reform Bill

By Christen Jackson

Associated Industries of Missouri (AIM) and its division the Taxpayers Research Institute of Missouri (TRIM) commend Gov. Matt Blunt for signing into law on Tuesday legislation that will finally provide all Missourians with real relief from rapidly rising property taxes.

Senate Bill 711, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, closes tax increase loopholes, requires earlier notice and more information, and expands tax relief for seniors and the disabled.

“Owning your own home or business property is the backbone of the American dream, and yet for many Missourians ever increasing property taxes turned that dream into a nightmare,” said Gary Marble, president of Associated Industries of Missouri, who served eight years in the Missouri House of Representatives and helped lead the fight for property tax relief. “I commend Sen. Gibbons for succeeding in passing a reform measure that many of us have championed for more than a decade.”

This is the first legislation that significantly reduces real property taxes since the county sales tax was authorized in 1979, requiring counties to rollback their levies in amounts equal to the new sales tax revenue they would receive from the county sales tax.

“Throughout the process of writing and passing this new law, Associated Industries and the NFIB were the only two general business groups supporting this bill,” said Ray McCarty, executive director of the Taxpayers Research Institute of Missouri. “We supported the positive changes contained in the bill that will benefit the employers in Missouri.”

The new law closes a loophole that allows the taxing districts to apply new voter approved levies to future and unknown assessments. The Missouri Attorney General’s office issued an opinion in 2003 stating that taxing jurisdictions can take a tax increase approved by the voters, for example in 2006, and then apply that new tax rate to the higher reassessed value in 2007. “Many of our members have been upset with the drastic increase in their tax bills resulting from the reassessment of the value of their property every two years without a simultaneous roll-back in the tax rate,” said McCarty. “Because all taxing districts have not been required to roll-back their rates, employers and other property owners receive astronomical increases in their property tax bills. One of our members noted an increase of more than 30 percent.”

McCarty said that SB 711 will require taxing districts to roll-back their rates, and brings transparency to the property tax system by requiring taxing districts that want additional tax money to adopt a policy statement. “This reform measure returns accountability to the real property tax assessment system,” McCarty added. “Associated Industries is proud to have supported this legislation from introduction through final passage.”