While spats ruled the day in Jefferson City, there was one big exception.

A House-Senate conference committee easily agreed tonight on a measure aimed at keeping property taxes from soaring after reassessment.

The bill would require local governments to roll back their rates when property values skyrocketed, as they did in St. Louis County last year.

The compromise version also increases tax credits for elderly and disabled homeowners on fixed incomes. Single homeowners making less than $30,000 and married couples making less than $34,000 would be eligible. They could get up to $1,100, instead of a maximum of $750.

If all goes according to plan, the Legislature could send the bill to the governor tomorrow.

The bill includes a slap at Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration for a recent increase in fees. Under the bill, the Department of Revenue could charge a half-penny per record, or about $20,000, for the state’s drivers license database.

The Department raised the fee this month to $7 per record, or $28 million for the database. Data-collection companies complained because they buy the data and resell it, for example, to insurers who use it to set auto insurance rates.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, the bill’s sponsor, said he would have preferred that the fee reduction weren’t in the bill, but he kept it when the House insisted.

Gibbons said Blunt has said he will sign the bill “and pursue his other options” on the fees. Gibbons was unsure what that meant.

The bill is sure to gain prominent mention in Gibbons’ campaign for attorney general. He called it “a tremendous plus for taxpayers of Missouri.”