Yawn …

Property taxes were voted in by the people. If “the people” have a better way to fund the entities which are funded by property taxes, they should show up with that message, instead.

I don’t know what the story is in Franklin county. Here in St. Louis county, the only legitimate gripe people have is that the county didn’t do a revenue-neutral rate rollback. The county says that because they are not at the maximum rate, they are not required to do it. Maybe so. But if that is really what the law says, it is badly flawed - every taxing jurisdiction would be wise to set its rate just a hair below the maximum, so that they could reap unlimited windfalls from rising assessments.

As far as “sharp jumps in assessments” I won’t disagree that they happened. However, there is a process to appeal your assessment if you feel that it is unfair. I did so on several properties, and found the process to be fair and efficient. If people would spend as much time preparing information for their appeal as they do protesting, they would probably paying a lot less property taxes.

Nick, this is why, conservative as I may be, I don’t jump on the anti-property tax bandwagon.

If voters didn’t put these taxes in place in the first place, they wouldn’t have them to complain about.

I’m sure they absolutely hate what the schools, libraries, community colleges and municipalities do to the resale value of their home!

I suppose if you want to make sure your taxes go down, see to it that your home’s value goes down. Might I suggest Krylon …

Jim, the problem isn’t the valuation, but the rate, and a 33% overnite increase in the amount of taxes due.

It wasn’t a change in the rate of taxation, though. It was a change in the assessed valuation, as I understand it.

Is this not correct?

This whole “taxation without representation” battle cry is nonsense.

Nick is right — challenge your assessed valuation with the assessor’s office — you have the right to do that when your tax bill comes out. If they can prove the valuation of your home is that amount, though, you lose.

Jim (R) you are stretching it quite a bit. People were ‘convinced’ to vote for tax increases in school districts for example because they were told it would only increase a home valued at $xxx,xxx a mere $xxx so they bought the snake oil. Now these same entities come back and because the homes valuation has increased so dramatically are paying way more than the snake oil salesmen said.

Moral of the story, demand more accountability from all levels of government, especially schools since they are the ones wasting, er I mean collecting the largest share of property taxes and vote no on all future property tax increases.

This according to Jim(R) will help to avoid future problems such as those in place now.

Centrist - I know somebody in Chesterfield whose assessed value increased by 31% this year. Stupidly, they did not appeal. But their taxes went up by less than 1/2%.

The assessed value on my house went up by 27%. However, it still is just assessed for what I paid for it 2 years ago, so I really can’t complain. My taxes went up by 14%. But another property I own in the same taxing jurisdictions went up only 8% in assessment, and my taxes actually dropped 3%.

Jim - The appeal process isn’t that they have to prove anything to you - they have already proven the value of your house, in a legal sense, with the document that they sent you. If you recall, it included the comparable sales upon which they based your valuation. If you appeal, it is your duty to provide documentation to refute their valuation. A lot of people get nowhere with their appeal because they don’t document their refutation of value and provide an alternate value, they just go in and complain.

Jackson - With the exception of a small handful of taxing districts, increased assessments were counteracted by rate rollbacks. That’s why the house I mention at the beginning of this post had a 31% hike in assessment, but only a 1/2% increase in property taxes. Unfortunately, St. Louis county did not roll back their rate, but since they are a small part of your total tax bill, it makes little difference to most people.

The unfortunate fact is, in a year when every news story says property values are declining, and where many people are selling houses for a lot less than a couple of years ago, the assessor still says peoples values are going up. This has created a lot of distrust in the process, and I think rightly so. But if people look at their tax bills, most of them will find that they haven’t changed very much.

I’m in Franklin County. My modest home, bought for $45,000 in 1993, was assessed at $97,000 this year. It is less than 1000 sq. ft., and all we’ve done with it in 15 years is a new roof and exterior paint (both needed.)

Doubled in real value? I don’t think so. BTW, this county is heavily Republican and still largely German– ain’t nothing more conservative than a rural Republican German burgher.

These people aren’t protesting property taxes as method, but the way the county has jacked up the assessments on existing homes beyond any reality. More power to them!

By the way, my taxes went up by 1/3– just the same as my assessment this year. So much for these theoretical rollbacks.

As someone who haunts the halls in Jefferson City - it is interesting to hear the perspectives of rural people versus urban/suburban people. The rural people think they are over assessed as do urban/suburban people. Urban/suburban people think rural people are getting a free ride and are being under assessed.

The common themes among them is that a) their assessments are increasing beyond their actual value - something that doesn’t seem to be a reality aside from the occasional appeal that is sustained and b) the fact that taxing districts are meeting the technical requirement of rolling back when at the maximum but not doing so when they are below - as demonstrated by St. Louis County.

I was around when Hancock was first being discussed and finally passed. Hancock contained a provision that was intended to eliminate the ability of taxing districts to have a windfall at the expense of the taxpayers. Taxing entities were to rollback their rates so as not to collect more than what they collected the year before except for new construction. It is an unintended outcome that assessments are rising so fast and that taxing entities are enjoying the tax windfall that results from a technicality that allows that windfall.

Jackson is correct when he/she states that people normally vote for levies or bond issues because they are told that it will only cost so much. It is a direct violation of the people’s trust for taxing entities to tax at a rate that ends up exceeding the people’s approval. Unfortunately - these taxing entities believe that they can spend the people’s money better than they can - something demonstrably not true.

We can only hope that the taxing entities who choose to abuse their taxpayers will see repeated failures to increase their levies until either those responsible are removed from office or they “repent and sin no more”. But then again - why should they be trusted to do the right thing when they haven’t for so long?