Cunningham

JEFFERSON CITY — The Senate took up the contentious issue of property tax and assessment today, but the issue got put on hold in the middle of the intra-party debate between Repulicans.

Several solutions have been offered about this problem, but there doesn’t seem to be agreement even within the Republican party about what the right answer is.

“What I’m trying to find out, and I don’t know the answer, Is current law better than any of the proposals we’re looking at?” Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, said.

He accused lawmakers, without naming names, of voting against the taxpayer.

“We are writing statutes for the benefit of taxing entities rather than taxpayers,” he told Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfied.

The chamber was debating a bill from Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, which he says will fix some loopholes in a property tax law passed last year. But raising the issue invited a barrage of amendments from senators who claimed to have a better fix.

Cunningham and Brad Lager, R-Savannah, sponsored amendments back and forth, but none had been attached to the bill by the time they took a break.

Cunningham aims to, she said, streamline the process by capping taxable property assessments. Lager’s amendment tweaks the existing law to give taxing districts five years to bring the tax ceiling to a vote of the people, if it hasn’t been voted upon already.

Lager, along with President Pro Tem Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, criticized Cunningham’s amendment.

Shields said it would lead to vastly different property assessments, and therefore taxes, on even virtually identical houses.

Then Lager sponsored his amendment over Cunningham’s.

“It looks like your substitute amendment would wipe out my whole purpose for this,” she said.

“You’re right,” he answered.

She was about to amend his amendment when they laid the bill over.

See a related story about a drop in property assessments.