(The Center Square) – Despite an order by the Missouri Tax Commission for Jackson County to roll back property tax assessment values, it appears leaders are going to ignore the ruling.
“They essentially restated every point we made in our letter that we released at the end of last year,” Republican Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick told reporters during a press conference in St. Louis on Thursday. “I don’t know what’s going to come of this. Jackson County said they were essentially going to ignore the order of the Tax Commission. I’m not an attorney so I don’t know where it’s going to go from here.”
In its four-page ruling, the Tax Commission described errors by the county’s assessment department as “widespread and systemic, affecting at least 75% of the parcels…”
County Executive Frank White called the order “politically motivated and inaccurate,” according to several media outlets.
“This reckless order is harmful to not only taxing jurisdictions, but also taxpayers,” White said in a statement. “While fixing decades of mismanagement hasn’t been easy, we are committed to fairness and will continue working every day to achieve it. Actions like this do immense harm to our communities.”
Fitzpatrick’s audit began last year and in December he wrote a letter to Jackson County leaders stating citizens “were victims of a flawed and inadequate assessment process.” Fitzpatrick received complaints the county violated state law regarding physical inspection requirements when the assessed valuation of property increases by more than 15%.
In a media release, Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey stated information obtained during the legal discovery process in his lawsuit against the county assisted the Tax Commission in their ruling. Two other lawsuits against the county and the vendor it used for the assessment process were unanimously dismissed by the Missouri Supreme Court last year.
On Thursday, a Jackson County judge granted Bailey’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
However, several media outlets reported Jackson County attorneys were scheduled on Thursday to depose Bailey, who won the Republican nomination for his office on Tuesday. Jackson County attorneys said possible ethics violations took place regarding conversations between Bailey’s office and Jackson County Legislator Sean Smith. Smith will be the Republican candidate in the November general election against Democratic incumbent Emanuel Cleaver in Missouri’s 5th Congressional District.
“Unfortunately, the administration failed,” Smith told reporters during a live stream press conference on his campaign’s Facebook page on Thursday. “And the reality is while that failure lingers, we continue to do harm to them. How? There are people out there with mortgage payments they can’t afford. There are people whose rent went up because the property taxes went up and the landlords pass the costs onto those people.”
Smith was joined by four other Jackson County legislators at the press conference to announce their acceptance of the order.
“It’s imperative that the county executive, the county administration and our county attorneys immediately stop trying to fight what is obviously a flawed process, a process that didn’t follow the law.” Smith said.
