KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
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One month after ordering Jackson County to correct its 2023 property reassessments, which also were in place for 2024 as part of the state’s two-year property-tax cycle, the Missouri State Tax Commission issued a superseding order last week.
Jackson County must retroactively recalculate “a baseline for 2025 residential assessments” that rolls back assessments values for many properties across the county under a new order that the State Tax Commission, or STC, published Thursday.
The latest Order Regarding Jackson County 2025 Residential Property Tax Assessments directs County Assessor Gail McCann Beatty’s office to reset the 2023 assessment to no more than 15% of 2022 assessed values.
Then, using that as a new baseline for the 2023-24 tax years, Jackson County must limit property reassessments for 2025 to no more than 15% of the recalculated value.
Jackson County’s legal department has assured the STC in writing it will comply with the new order, STC Chief Counsel Gregory Allsberry said Monday via text.
The county had previously announced a 15% cap on 2025 reassessments.
The order doesn’t impact new construction or substantially improved properties.
It also includes language that keeps lower assessment values in place for properties that didn’t receive valuation increase of more than 15% during the 2023 or 2025 reassessment cycles, ordering Jackson County to assess at the lower of the two possible values.
Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. called an April 22 order “shocking,” even though it came three weeks after the resolution of a monthslong legal fight between the STC and the county.
The STC ordered Jackson County to rollback parts of its 2023 reassessment with a separate August 2024 order.
Jackson County fought that order, but a Jackson County Circuit Court Judge sided with the STC, issuing a 38-page ruling on March 31 that said the State Tax Commission was within its authority to order the rollback.
Now, the STC’s superseding order from May 22 effectively caps residential property reassessment increases from 2022 at 32.25%.
For example, a home valued at $200,000 in 2022 would have, at most, a baseline reassessment value for 2023-24 of $230,000, which means the 2025 reassessment would be capped at $264,500 even if the county passes along a 15% increase for both reassessment cycles.
The STC’s May 22 order does not require Jackson County to refund past property-tax payments or provide property-tax credits for those years, but it does take a significant step to ensure the 2025 reassessments won’t be as calamitous as the 2019 and 2023 cycles, which broke records for appeals to the Jackson County Board of Equalization.
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