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| BY PAUL LIVIUS |
State Auditor begins
Audit of Jackson
County Tax Increases
The
Jackson County Legislature has approved a resolution inviting the Missouri
State Auditor’s Office to “conduct a full audit to examine and evaluate Jackson
County's property assessment processes.”
Missouri State
Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick has initiated a review to
investigate complaints regarding
the property assessment process.
Irregularities
in the audit process have been found. The owner of a vacant lot says the
property was valued at $356,270. He does not believe an in-person inspection of
the vacant property took place. That goes against a new state law.
The
State Auditor as begun a comprehensive review as to why Jackson County
continues to see increases in assessed value that are significantly higher than
those other Missouri counties.
Five Eastern Jackson County cities have also formally questioned the assessment process in Jackson County. Those cities are: Raytown, Lee's Summit, Independence, Blue Springs, Grain Valley.
Talk of more Tax Increases
on next Spring’s Raytown Ballot
The word out of Raytown City Hall is that the Mayor has tentative plans to place another tax proposal on next April’s city election. It is also known that the Raytown Park Department is considering placing a renewal of city’s Park Sales Tax on the same ballot. The Park Sales tax is a renewable sales tax with a life of five years. Proceeds from the tax are split between Parks and Recreation and the city’s Storm Sewer maintenance.
Local television commentators have suggested that next April is also a possible time to ask voters to consider a County wide stadium tax to pay for a new major league baseball stadium in the Kansas City area.
The April 2024 election is an off-year time for voting. There would not be any politicians running for office.
The Raytown Report will keep readers up to speed on these stories as the April 2024 election date draws near.
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| INTRODUCTION BY GREG WALTERS |
Raytown Report
The following article
was written by Preston Smith. Mr. Smith served as a member of the Jackson County Board of
Equalization for 14 years. During that time, he heard over 10,000
appeals. Smith
also has 31 years of high-level data analysis experience.
Mr. Smith recently spoke
before the Raytown Board of Aldermen on mistakes and errors he found in the
reassessment process in Jackson County. The Board unanimously agreed to
endorse a Resolution calling for a rollback of property tax increase in Jackson
County.
Jackson County
Legislature requests
State
Auditor to conduct a formal
Audit of Jackson County
On Monday, August 21, the Jackson County
Legislature voted (by a vote of nine YES to one NO) to request an independent
audit by Missouri State Auditor Scott
Fitzpatrick of the current reassessment debacle in Jackson County,
Missouri.
Their goal is to find
a solution to the assessment process used by Jackson County. The Legislator
Auditor for review and options as to what can be done to fix mistakes in
setting residential home values throughout Jackson County.
In his article, Mr. Smith offers some sound solutions to a process that has proven to be unfair and inaccurate.
63 parcels were modified from the $356,270 original value that the County used when the notices were mailed in June, all of those coming from taxpayer appeals. Even though the values in many of these are obviously flawed, there does not seem to be a process of correcting these errors outside of the appeal process.
The question is: Why would someone not appeal if they saw a house that they bought in March 2021 for $11,775, then receiving a tax notice saying the 2 bed, 1 bath 960 sq ft house built in 1940 was now worth $356,270? Of this list of 507 parcels, the owners of 260 did not appeal, even though the average increase for the group was 168 percent from the previous assessment.
Perhaps they didn't get a notice.
The number of egregious errors in the Jackson County assessment has passed a tipping point. New evidence shows that the County Assessor has valued 80-year-old, 600-square-foot homes at more than $350,000. This is not an isolated problem. Thousands of home values are wrong—and wrong badly.
Other new evidence now shows that there may be more than 50,000 taxpayers who did not receive notice of their new assessment. Either that, or the county data is wrong again.
The 2019 assessment was flawed. This assessment is far worse. Here are the new, stunning details of an assessment gone horribly wrong:
Although there were more than 54,000 appeals filed by taxpayers, this spreadsheet is an indication that the number of persons who might have wanted to appeal but couldn't, or didn't because they didn't receive a notice, could be another 50,000. Again, the County's data quality control doesn't work if everybody doesn't appeal.
The County Assessment Department provided me a list that had 267,033 parcels listed that supposedly was used to make the mailing of the notices, but when the duplicates were taken out, there were 252,870. If there are 309,000 parcels in the County, that would mean more than 56,000 taxpayers likely did not receive any notice at all.
This assessment is flawed from top to bottom, and this spreadsheet shows it. Thousands of Jackson County taxpayers were not given notice of this assessment and unless something dramatic is done, they are going to be hit with catastrophic tax bills.
There have been too many mistakes in this assessment. The only fair and equitable way is to freeze residential values at 2021 levels and start over with a 14.9 percent flat increase across the county. (There has already been a flat-rate 25 percent increase applied to commercial parcels in the 2023 assessment.)
The people of Jackson County should not pay higher taxes they do not deserve because of an incompetent, mistake-riddled assessment. The reason for the 14.9 percent increase cap is because I believe there is little to no evidence that the County actually met the state law on informing taxpayers of physical inspections and conducting them properly, and without that proof, it is illegal to increase assessments more than 15 percent.
I ask the County Executive, the Board of Equalization or State Tax Commission intervene to realign the assessments of the taxpayers of Jackson County in order to avoid thousands losing their homes this winter. There are currently three paths to approve this 14.9 percent cap on assessments:
The County Executive has the power, under the County Charter Article III, Section 6, Item 9, to "correct errors in assessment and tax records." With one stroke of the pen, a flat-rate could be set by the County Executive.
The Board of Equalization has the power to enact a countywide "equalization order," which is a legal tool used when there can no longer be fair and equitable assessments based on the current process. That is exactly what we have now: a process for equity that is broken. (See attachment)
Finally, the State Tax Commission has the authority to call upon the Attorney General or prosecuting attorneys in the state to assist in enforcing the property tax laws in the courts. Numerous state laws have been violated in this assessment, ranging from the late notice or lack received by taxpayers, lack of physical inspections and unequal access to appeals. The Commission also has the authority to convene a hearing concerning the assessment of any parcel in the state to ensure that all assessments have been made in compliance with law.
Regardless of which body
takes action, the taxpayers of Jackson County need relief now. Either the
County Executive, Board of Equalization or State Tax Commission should take
immediate action and then convene a task force to make sure the next assessment
is done right.
16 comments:
Tax and tax to no end. I hope city of Raytown sends a stern email to frank white to let him know how mad Raytown citizens are, especially after city hall raised our sewer rates and our streets are going to pot(holes).
Has anyone heard any news about Ryan Myers plan to go to one trash hauler in Raytown? Just wondering.
Thank you to Greg and the rest of the Board of Aldermen for putting together the information on the resolution. It looks like there are some people listening. It is good to know that you guys have our back.
I hope the County Legislature's request for a thorough audit brings some results. There is not any justification for property values in Jackson County to be so much higher than the values in Clay, Platte, etc., counties.
There has been no decisions made in regards to this possible occurrence. It was discussed ONCE at a recent BOA mtg and will move to a possible committee for further vetting and will then be back on the Agenda of a future BOA mtg for further discussion. You know what 6 different heavy GVWR trash trucks running up and down the same streets 6 days a week isn't helping our decaying streets. In 2018 an outside engineering firm estimated $38 million dollars worth of short and long range repair projects needed to be accomplished. 15% of the streets at that time were put in the emergency category. Which meant their life span was SHOT essentially. No more temporary seal coat, but the most costly mill and overlay down to dirt needed to be done to restore the structural integrity of those roadways. Another large % were sliding to that overall condition in another 2 to 3 years. After 2 failed funding attempts to address the identified infrastructure needs here we are what 5 years later with no revenue and with inflation those costs have risen sharply. There is a reason other communities have gone to single hauler services and the less wear and tear on their streets was a measurable benefit. Also the monthly cost to citizens actually went down as well as there were 2 bulk pickups available as well. So yes this will be analyzed and deeply vetted to determine if this is indeed a viable measure that will have several benefits both short and long term. Stay engaged, distribute educated and factual information, follow the process, and get involved!
Good to hear from you Mike! I was thinking about the two times the failed tax hikes last year. Not many people know this, but I understand those opposed to the tax increases offered to meet the city halfway on the taxes. But the city would have no part of it.
Given what Jackson County is trying to do to us it was a wise move by the taxpayers to turn down the taxes.
I don't know you Mike, but please be aware not everyone in Raytown has a big pension to protect them when the cost of living goes out of control. Make no mistake about it. The cost of living also includes taxes. Every time our prices at the grocery store go up, so do the taxes we pay.
Perhaps the city council has learned something like, new an innovative ways to raise funds to take care of maintenance. For many years city hall gutted the street department budget to balance the budget.
Hope they learned that is not the best way to run a city.
As for the trash hauling plan, I am all for it if it saves everybody some money. But I am not too excited about it if if it actually ends up cost us more money.
You seem to have a pretty good handle on what has transpired at city hall. I applaud the fact that you are keeping in touch with what is going on.
The City is using the new e-commerce tax to give employees raises, seriously. The roads are falling apart and the Mayor is more concerned with his staff than the streets.
For what it's worth, I want to hire and fire my own trash hauling company, we don't need the City doing this for us.
Yes. The e-commerce tax is money collected on internet sales. When they took it to the voters they promised the money would be used to fix our streets. No joke. Ryan Myers was spearheading the tax increase. Very long on promises but very short on keeping their promises.
I recall getting some from the city about the tax. I would be used for street maintenance and snow removal.
By the way you know how to tell when Ryan or Mike are lying to us.
Their lips are moving.
Maybe they have not noticed the weather patterns have changed. We get very little snow any more. This could be a news flash to them at city hall. Maybe they do not know because very few of them live in Raytown.
In regards to your last post about Neighborhood watch "Like the sign reads, “WE CALL THE POLICE”. All you have to do is dial 911 to report ANY crime or suspicious activity in your neighborhood."
Just remember that 911 is for emergencies ONLY, something that is not in progress is not an emergency please call the non emergency number 816-737-6020.
Keep 911 lines open for people that have emergencies
A most interesting comment. I remember attending a Park Board meeting years ago. The main topic was some bad behavior going on at the park in the evenings. The Chief of Police was there. He took out a sheet of paper and read that there had only been three calls to the police department at problems in the park in the last year. Which was interesting because there were a number people who said they had called more than three times themselves in the last year.
Which certainly sheds a different light on what was being reported.
Turns out that a call the "non-emergency line" is not tracked or recorded as an official document by the police department. However, calls to 911 are MOST DEFINITELY recorded and, in fact, are a matter of public record.
My wife saw a truck backed up to my neighbors house while they were out of town. She called 911. It turns out it was my neighbor's relatives moving furniture for him.
How would she have known? Go up and ask complete strangers "what are you doing"?
The police thanked thanked her for calling. They said it is better to be safe than sorry.
In fact, I have never heard of police officers complaining about calls for service. Same can be said about the Fire Department. They have always responded.
Every situation is different. These are rough times we are living in. Better safe than sorry.
Suspicious activity is an unknown situation. Do not hesitate to call 911 when you do not know all the facts.
Not to beat a dead horse, but less cars on the road would reduce the wear and tear also. Let's see... what if we required cars to be licensed before they were allowed to use the roads? I hear folks talking about it everywhere, but I still see paper tags that expired in 2022. What seems to be the major malfunction? Tow them to the impound lot!
The main reason people give for not getting their vehicles licensed is the cost of the sales tax. The State Legislature has passed a law requiring all car dealers to collect sales tax at the time of the purchase. It won't fix what's on the road now, but will keep it from being so prevalent in the future.
Taxes in Jackson County are at an all time high. Two years ago they raised by Personal Property Tax. That's the tax they charge you annually for our cars, by 10%. This year they lowered it by 5%. Let's do the simple math. It means they raised the personal property tax by 5%. It is not just the state that collects money on the sale of cars. So do the cities in which the car dealers have a their showrooms.
The other tax increases they never talk about are sales tax increases and how inflation drives them even higher. For reality check on how bad inflation is visit your local grocery stores. You will see higher prices and down-sized packaging. You may also note that many grocery stores are rounding up their prices.
Every time you purchase at the stores, the taxman is at the checkout counter with you. He always gets a taste of what you are spending. To paraphrase a quote often attributed to the Russian Revolutionary Leader Vladimir Lenin, "We will grind the middle class down between the millstones of taxes and inflation.
For a more modern comment by a popular country western songwriter, "Our money ain't worth . . . "
Sad but true. Like the man in a popular country song recently released "our money ain't worth . . ."
"We Call The Police"... well we have and each time the call taker acted disinterested and no officer ever showed up.
1st time recently was a man going door to door "selling magazines". He had no clipboard or brochures nor any papers to sign. Litterally nothing. He was going up to people's windows and garages looking in. And he didn't have a Solicitor license. We called the police and the call taker acted like it was no big deal but said they'd send someone out. No one ever showed up. And now we had a burglary a few doors away last week.
2nd one was just the other day. A young man jumped my fence and then jumped back into the front yard and was confronted by two adults, one using a walkie talkie app. One of them grabbed the young man by the arm and a car pulled up and they all took off. I called the police and was told I could bring my doorbell video up to the police station if I want and they'll review it. Really?!?!
So why call the police???
I called on a Sunday night for loud music and they only had 3 cops on duty and they were all tied up.
I called the Mayor the next day and explained my issue. I asked him if someone is trying to break in my house and I can't get the police to show up, that I will take matters into my own hands and shoot them. He told me to do what I have to do. My home is armed with guns, cameras, lights and an alarm system. Knock at my door at your own risk!!
No one wants to be a cop anymore and I don't blame them. We will have to take matters into our own hands.
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